Michigan Strikes Detroit Bridge Deal With Canada
Michigan and Canada agreed to build a privately financed second bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, to compete with the Ambassador crossing that has connected the two cities since 1929.
The New International Trade Crossing will bolster Michigan’s $70 billion-a-year trade with Canada, Governor Rick Snyder Snyder, a Republican, said in a posting on his Facebook page. The statement didn’t give the project’s cost or time of completion.
The new bridge would be designed and financed by a private operator, with oversight by a Canadian entity called the Crossing Authority, according to a statement from Snyder’s office. The builder and agency would commit to a partnership lasting 40 to 50 years.
“We have an opportunity to greatly improve our border crossing, give businesses more of a reason to grow and expand in our state, and help make Michigan the global transportation hub that it can and should be,” Snyder, 53, wrote in the post. “And we can do it at no cost to the people of Michigan, thanks to our friends in Canada.”
A second span connecting Detroit and Windsor would supplement the Ambassador Bridge, the busiest crossing in the world’s largest bilateral trade relationship, with more than C$130 billion ($127 billion) in shipments and 8,000 trucks crossing the border each day, according to Canadian government data. Manuel Moroun, the billionaire owner and operator of the existing bridge, has opposed a publicly financed competitor.