TORONTO — Michigan politicians shouldn’t even consider pulling the funding plug on a binational committee scouting a new border crossing at the vital Detroit-Windsor trade gateway, two prominent business groups insist.

In a joint letter to Canadian and U.S. politicians, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce’s (OCC) President Len Crispino and Richard E. Blouse Jr., CEO of the Detroit Regional Chamber, demand that plans to build a new, separate crossing over the Detroit River are allowed to continue with public support.

The Ontario and Detroit Chambers of Commerce have united
to support a new crossing southwest of the Ambassador.

“An additional border crossing in the Detroit-Windsor region will enhance security, competition, and future growth to economies on both sides of the border,” states the letter, obtained by TodaysTrucking.com. “The OCC and the Detroit Regional Chamber are strong proponents of building a new crossing between Detroit and Windsor as this will serve to ease existing and future capacity, as well as security issues.”

The Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC) — a binational group of regional and federal politicians and stakeholders from the U.S. and Canada — decided in 2005 that a new bridge should be built somewhere in southwest Windsor and Detroit, a few kilometers from the current, privately-owned Ambassador Bridge.

DRIC is in the process of conducting environmental impact assessments and community surveys on a list of final locations. But Michigan Senate Republican Alan Cropsey is pushing a budget amendment that would kill state funding for the border study group.

Cropsey told local media recently that it’s “lunacy” to spend precious tax dollars on the DRIC when the Ambassador Bridge owners are forging ahead with their own plan to twin their bridge with a new six-lane span.

The Canadian and Ontario governments, however, oppose the Ambassador’s project as the sole option for the busy gateway, which has virtually no border crossing redundancy and is facing increasing truck traffic on feeder arteries.

Business groups are worried over the lack of redundancy
at the busiest commercial land crossing in the world.

“Removal of state funding for the DRIC process will not likely stop the project but will certainly remove Michigan state government from the decision-making elements of the process,” says the letter. “Continuation of the DRIC process, with Michigan at the table, is critically important to job providers throughout the region. Efforts to slow down this process will be interpreted by business as efforts to limit our ability to compete in the global marketplace.”

Close to $300 million worth in daily just-in-time deliveries alone passes through the Detroit-Windsor region, says the OCC. The integrated U.S. and Canadian auto industry — as well as many other international producers and manufacturers that source materials from both sides of the border — are heavily dependent on sufficient capacity at the 78-year-old Ambassador Bridge.

“Congestion and inefficiencies at the border crossings … pose a challenge to the efficient movement of goods and people. Indeed, we are dealing with pre-NAFTA infrastructure in a post-NAFTA world, and it is no longer meeting our economic needs,” the letter continues.

Earlier this month, North Americas ‘Big Three’ carmakers and other vehicle manufacturers also authored a letter through their Canadian and U.S. associations urging that the state Senate not cut funding to DRIC.

The letter, first reported by Todaystrucking.com, also included the first official statement of support by the Big Three for a new separate crossing downriver of the Ambassador. (Click the Related Stories link below for more on this).