ambassador bridge

Detroit International Bridge Co (DIBC) owner and operator of the Detroit to Windsor Ambassador Bridge is seeking bids for replacing the main deck which goes back to 1929. The deck has undergone repeated maintenance and repairs but spokesman Phil Frame say they've decided "it is time to fully replace it."

The Coast Guard, the US Government's designated authority at the Detroit River is refusing to consider an application by the Detroit International Bridge Company (DIBC) to twin their Ambassador bridge, the major toll crossing between Detroit Michigan and Windsor Ontario.

Someone asked recently what were the three toughest PR jobs in tolling in north America. The answer in ascending order of difficulty:

The new Detroit River International Crossing Bridge (DRIC) has been presented as a 6-lane structure but the lower traffic forecasts released this week suggest that 4 lanes would be plenty - offering the opportunity for substantial cost savings. The new traffic study led by Wilbur Smith Associates presents numbers suggesting a 4-lane capacity of 72k passenger-car-equivalents (PCE) per day won't be reached until after 2050.

The government of Canada has initiated talks to purchase the Ambassador Bridge, the major trucking route between Canada and the US .

The Ambassador Bridge company suffered defeat today in a court case brought by Michigan DOT for breach of contract. Judge Prentis Edwards of Wayne County Circuit Court in a 15-page ruling found the Bridge company to be in violation of its contract commitments by failing to build its part of the Gateway Project (upgraded links to I-75 and I-96) as agreed in 2004.

The Ambassador Bridge company fought so fiercely the release of an annual engineer's inspection report it was bound to get huge media attention when it was released today by veteran Michigan congressman John Dingell. Two courts had rejected the bridge company's efforts to invoke national security and proprietary data to keep under wraps the report by wellknown bridge engineers Modjeski & Masters.

A judge in Detroit has given the Ambassador Bridge company 90 days in which to get governmental agreement to a controversial security fence or to pull it down. The company was sued over the fence by the City of Detroit whose lawyers said the fence was illegal and an encroachment on city land.

The Ambassador Bridge company may support publication of a summary of their controversial 2007 inspection report, a bridge official told TOLLROADSnews today. They have been the subject of fierce criticism for court moves to keep the bridge report under wraps on the grounds that it covers up safety problems. The official told us there was no reason to keep the broad conclusions of the report secret.

Talk about trying to order back the tide!

Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Moroun is fighting in the courts to try suppress a safety inspection report on his toll bridge. His lawyers cite national security and various confidentiality agreements.

Piffle. 100% piffle.

No report on the safety condition of a publicly used bridge can possibly be justified as "secret."

Detroit International Bridge Company (DIBC) owners of the Ambassador Bridge, Detroit-Windsor have filed suit to prevent Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) from releasing an annual safety and condition report.  They claim in the suit filed in US District Court in Detroit that release of the report would:

Here is the full text of a press statement issued by Ambassador Bridge in response to MDOT's law suit June 24 seeking a court order against the bridge company to force it to adhere to contractual commitments in the Gateway project and seeking damages for multiple alleged breqaches of contract:

"Ambassador Bridge Lawsuit Fogs Facts

Michigan DOT have gone to court to try to force the Ambassador Bridge company to build connections to the interstate highways nearby in conformity with a contract for a project called the Ambassador Bridge Gateway Project.  The court case is one of a series of disputes and litigation the Bridge company - called Detroit River Bridge Company or DIBC - is involved in.

Detroit's battle of the bridges took a new turn today with the US Government putting on hold the permitting of a new Ambassador bridge between Detroit and Windsor.