Detroit Bridge Battle Pits City Residents Against Each Other

DETROIT -- The battle for a bridge over the Detroit River has been fierce. One one side of the fight stands a billionaire who does not want to see his monopoly on international freight traffic challenged. On the other is a headstrong governor who does not want to see his favorite infrastructure project killed. The casualties along the way have been the people of Detroit, stuck in the center of a bruising, sometimes racially-charged debate over how to revive the region's economy.

Although a state Senate committee voted down his plan for a new bridge, Gov. Rick Snyder's public pronouncements have indicated the battle may continue to rage for quite some time. Snyder and many of Michigan's leading business interests would like to see a bridge called the New International Trade Crossing (NITC) built across the Detroit River to Canada. The NITC would add a second span not far from the Ambassador Bridge, which is privately owned. Its advocates say the new bridge is crucial to the region's infrastructure and necessary to ease truck traffic congestion on the Ambassador. But thus far their efforts have come to naught as they've run up against the Ambassador's billionaire owner and his political influence.

The future of the metropolitan region's economy is held hostage as the state, and Canada, await a resolution. "We've got a lot of optimism that Detroit could be set on a path to success," said Lt. Gov. Brian Calley, a Republican. Building a new bridge to expand freight trucking capacity in the state's largest city wouldn't be a magic bullet for the region's economy, he added, but "the last thing we need are more people avoiding Detroit" because of traffic congestion.

The owner of the Ambassador Bridge, Manuel "Matty" Moroun, has a remarkable talent for creating strange bedfellows among both his enemies and his friends. Snyder, a Republican who used to serve as CEO of a venture capital firm, has been pushing hard for a second bridge to be built, partially with public money, just downriver of the Ambassador. On his side is organized labor, the Big Three automakers and a who's who of Michigan's businesses and Chambers of Commerce.

On Moroun's side are a hodgepodge group of opponents of the NITC. They support Moroun's argument that his Detroit International Bridge Company (DIBC) should be the one to build a "twin" span for the Ambassador. They argue that a "government" bridge (which would be built in concert with a private investor) represents an unfair attempt to undermine Moroun's business.

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