Detroit's Out of Control International Bridge Company

[SpartanDem]

For the unfamiler the Ambassador Bridge which links Detroit and Canda is privately own and man who owns and company are nothing more than local terrorsit


Taking a reporter on a tour of the area around the American side of the Ambassador Bridge, state Rep. Rashida Tlaib expresses a mixture of outrage and disbelief at the audacity of the span's owner.

Steering her dark gray Buick Rendezvous through the southwest Detroit neighborhood she represents, the freshman
Democratic legislator keeps one hand on the wheel and an occasional eye on the road while pointing out what she says is evidence of a company that acts as if it were above the law.

There is the obvious: Towering concrete piers supporting a monumental ramp that, for the time being at least, leads to nowhere. The elevated roadway is intended to connect to a new bridge that billionaire Manuel "Matty" Moroun and his Detroit International Bridge Co. want, but have not yet received permission to build. The U.S. Coast Guard has asked the company to show why constructing the ramp before receiving the government's permission isn't a violation of the law.

There is the invisible: Another ramp that is supposed to be constructed by the DIBC, but may not materialize because of unilateral changes the company made to a $240 million project that includes the federal government, the state of Michigan, the city of Detroit and area residents as "stakeholders." The absence of that ramp — which the bridge company is obligated to pay for — is a major issue, says Tlaib, because it is intended to keep the 3 million trucks that cross the bridge every year away from the surface streets of this community that serves as a nexus point on North America's busiest commercial border crossing.

There is the incredible: a sprawling new truck plaza that features multiple diesel pumps and a duty free shop — also owned by Moroun and his DIBC — that includes what used to be a segment of 23rd street. That strip of road, according to the city of Detroit, was taken without its permission.


http://metrotimes.com/news/story.asp?id=14056