LANSING, Mich. — Plans to build a new, public bridge at the Windsor-Detroit gateway suffered a setback this week when Michigan’s Senate Majority Leader announced there would be no vote on the proposal in 2010.

Despite statements that there would be an up and down vote in the Legislature during a lame duck session after the Nov. 2 mid-term elections, Mike Bishop’s office said the vote will be delayed until newly elected Republican governor Rick Snyder takes over in the new year.

The Senate’s approval is regarded as the last major hurdle for the crossing. But it’s entirely likely that the bill that has been climbing the legislative ladder for the last couple of years is dead and an entirely new proposal would have to be tabled in 2011. 

For now, DRIC is alive, albeit on a very short leash. House and Senate lawmakers compromised before the election to maintain the project on a modest $750,000 budget through the end of May 2011.

Proponents of the binational Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC) had hoped that the vote to continue funding the project would take place by year’s end while Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a strong DRIC supporter, was still at the helm.

Not only did that not happen, but Republicans gained more seats in the Senate, which has been stalling the final DRIC vote for months, and gained control of the House from Democrats, which narrowly approved the DRIC bill in the summer.

The news is sure to galvanize political opponents such as Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Moroun who for years has intensely lobbied Republicans to kill the project.

The Canadian government has pledged to lend Michigan $550 million to pay the state’s costs of the bridge if it were to green light the project for good.

Meanwhile, on this side of the border, the $1.6-billion Windsor-Essex Parkway project – the new Windsor feeder route to the proposed bridge site – selected a consortium that will build the project.

Construction firms led by ACS Infrastructure, Acciona Infrastructure and Fluor Canada Ltd. under the banner, Windsor Essex Mobility Group, say the project will be shovel ready by next August.

The truck route project is billed as the biggest road project in Ontario history.

Undoubtedly, this is all the more reason for Canadian officials to keep a close eye on political developments in Michigan.

Because if DRIC isn’t approved on that side of the Detroit River soon, Ontario and Ottawa officials may be finding themselves paving a road to nowhere.