DETROIT — The President of the privately owned Ambassador Bridge is asking Detroit City Council to disregard a prior memorandum from a southwest Detroit community group that wants to stop the bridge company’s plans to build a twin span across the Detroit River.

In a letter obtained by TodaysTrucking.com, Detroit International Bridge Co. President Dan Stamper responded to the memo by lawyers for the Gateway Development Council and the Delray Community Council criticizing the second bridge span on environmental and legal grounds.

Stamper says the new span would very likely replace the current bridge eventually. The company would only operate both spans if it made economic sense.

The Ambassador Bridge company says it will forge ahead
with a twin span, with or without government approval

The community groups claim the DIBC was required to gain legal authority from the City of Detroit for zoning, building, and other approvals before filing any other applications.

The bridge company has already taken steps to get permission to construct a bridge “over a navigable waterway” from the U.S. Coast Guard — a move the Gateway Development Group says is premature.

However, Stamper’s own letter to Detroit council says the assertion that the USCG cannot issue a permit until the city has given the green light first is simply “not correct.” The Gateway memo also fails to note, Stamper continues, that the Ambassador Bridge already holds Congressional authorization for a new span.

“We have viewed the (USCG) application as the first, but not the last, step in our process,” says Stamper. “We fully intend to seek whatever construction permits needed by the City of Detroit before breaking ground and of course obtaining requisite Canadian approvals … We have made that clear from the outset.”

Furthermore, Stamper disagreed with the authors’ claims that an Environmental Impact Statement is required for the new span. “(That’s) an issue for the Coast Guard to determine.”

Unless it makes economic sense, it’s unlikely the company
will continue to operate both spans in the long term

Other assertions in the Gateway Development memo to council are “equally unfounded,” says Stamper. The assumption that a new span would increase capacity and traffic — thereby noise and pollution — by 50 to 150 percent, “is wrong,” he says, adding that border capacity is a function of the size of the inspection plazas, which he says will not be expanded, nor will new plazas be built.

Stamper also dismissed the community groups’ claim that construction requires the expropriation and relocation of many properties in that particular poverty-stricken region of Detroit. “Virtually, all U.S. property needed for the new bridge is already in hand, and much of the property needed in Windsor is already in hand.”

The bridge company had originally pitched its twin span proposal to the binational Detroit River International Crossing study, which was created by governments and stakeholders on both sides of the border to select a new border crossing solution for the congested Windsor, Ont.-Detroit gateway.

The DRIC eventually dismissed the Ambassador’s plan from contention, agreeing instead to pursue the concept of an entirely separate bridge about 3km southwest of the existing Ambassador, which is owned by Grosse Pointe billionaire and trucking mogul Matty Moroun.

In his letter to council, Stamper also used the opportunity to take another shot at that proposal, saying the Ambassador’s approach makes more economic sense and deserves the support of all levels of government.

“We question whether it makes sense to use scarce public transportation funds — that could be better used for needed highway improvements — to continue studying this new bridge … given the advantages of existing infrastructure at virtually no taxpayer cost.”

Critics say, however, the region should not let yet another vital bridge fall into private hands, and a security sensitive structure such as a major international crossing should have more public control and oversight.

The bridge company repordedly has full autonomy over the bridge, holding the right to limit access — including law enforcement and safety personnel — from the structure.