detroit-windsor

2013-04-09: A state representative for Detroit and mayoral candidate Fred Durhal (Dem) is seeking a court ruling to void Michigan Governor Rick Synder's agreement allowing the Canadian Government to build a new toll bridge over the Detroit River, downstream of the Ambassador bridge.  In a statement Rep Durhal says his lawsuit seeks to establish the legislature's role in authorizing the project and any agreement with the Canadians.

TOLLROADSnews has had an extended back & forth with proponents of the new Detroit-Windsor bridge championed by state governor Rick Snyder and the Canadian Government, and opposed by the Michigan legislature, the Ambassador Bridge company and a group it supports called The People Should Decide.

Monday evening around 8pm someone at a payphone in Windsor telephoned local police saying there was a bomb on the bridge. Authorities on both sides of the bridge got vehicles off, closed access, then began searches. As of midnight they had found nothing.

A similar phony threat was made midday July 12 saying there was a bomb in the nearby Detroit Windsor Tunnel. That threat had the tunnel closed for about five hours through the afternoon while searches were made, and nothing was found.

2012-07-12: The US Department of State has posted Michigan Governor Rick Snyder's application for a presidential permit for the  New International Trade Crossing (NITC) bridge, and it reveals new details as to the arrangements envisaged for the controversial project.

2012-06-15: The New International Trade Crossing (NITC) bridge Detroit-Windsor will be underwritten by the national government of Canada. Prospective toll revenues being insufficient to attract private investment, investors will be sought to design, build, finance and operate the NITC bridge under a 40 to 50 year contract with annual 'availability payments'  rather than toll revenues.

2012-06-15: The Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper is in Windsor today for the formal announcement of an agreement with Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to advance a new toll bridge downriver of the Ambassador Bridge. Governor Snyder faces opposition to having Michigan taxpayers underwrite any of the costs of the new bridge which will compete for limited traffic with the Blue Water Bridge, the Detroit Windsor Tunnel and the Ambassador Bridge span.

2012-06-01: Reporters hobnobbing with Michigan Governor Rick Snyder at a three day Mackinac Policy Conference on a resort island in Lake Huron this week ended up reporting that a plan to bypass a resistant legislature over a new toll bridge (known by the initials NITC or DRC) will be announced shortly.

Thursday morning senior Michigan, Ontario, US and Canadian government officials met In Windsor for neartly three hours of talks over proposals to advance construction of a new multi-government sponsored bridge two miles downriver of the Ambassador Bridge. Attending the meeting were Michigan governor Rick Snyder, Canadian transport minister Denis Lebel, US ambassador to Canada David Jacobson, US deputy secretary transportation John Porcari and other senior officials of the four governments.

A proposed new Canada-Michigan sponsored toll bridge downriver of the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit continues to lack support in the state legislature. Enabling legislation was rejected today by a key senate committee in which bridge promoters had invested great hopes.

Polling by political consultant Dick Morris shows that public opinion prefers private to government financing of a toll bridge between Detroit Michigan and Windsor Ontario. A sample of 500 Michigan residents got 51.8% support for a privately financed second span to the Ambassador Bridge to 27.6% preferring a "government owned bridge" with 20.6% saying don't know or declining to answer.