CHICAGO - As Michigan legislators continue to wrangle over a 2010 budget, a group of environmental and transportation activists this week urged officials and Gov. Jennifer Granholm to drop plans to build a new $1.8 billion border crossing between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.
"With Michigan's budget problems and with the state of our existing infrastructure, which is in dire need of being repaired, it's become apparent that this amount of money is not a good investment," said Hugh McDiarmid, communications director with the Michigan Environmental Council. It is one of nine groups - including the Sierra Club Michigan, Detroit-based Transportation Riders United and several Canadian groups - to sign the open letter to the state officials.
The proposed bridge, called the Detroit River International Crossing, is a project of the Michigan, the U.S., Ontario, and Canada governments. It is estimated that it will cost the U.S. $1.8 billion and may end up totaling $4 billion, according to reports.
Michigan officials have argued over the proposed bridge for years. Last year's budget allowed the state to spend money on preliminary planning and engineering studies, and so far roughly $40 million - in both federal and state dollars - has been spent on the project. Under the current plan, $1.54 billion of the $1.8 billion project would be financed with bonds.
In their letter, bridge opponents call the plan to issue $1.54 billion in debt to finance the bridge "egregious, given the absence of any compelling need for the proposed DRIC highway project, given Michigan's economic problems, and given the dire needs for rehabilitation of state, county, and local roads."
The coalition also said that declining border traffic doesn't justify a new bridge. "We're in favor of shoring up the infrastructure that we have and using public transit and rail options and getting our most bang for the buck there, rather than a bridge it looks like we don't need," McDiarmid said.
State officials predicted the traffic numbers would climb back up as soon as the economy begins to rebound.
"At some point the economy recovers and the truck traffic increases to previous levels," said Bill Shrek, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Transportation. "Then you need to be able to address traffic issues at the bridge, and at that point you're behind the curve. A project this large, with four partners, takes so long anyway."
Shrek added that a 2008 environmental study addressed "virtually all the concerns" raised by the coalition's letter.
To move ahead with the project, the state still needs legislative approval to set up a new toll facility as well as to form a public-private partnership.
"The main thing here is to get the regular budget through the Legislature - if that doesn't get passed, nothing will be going on here," Shrek said. "After that, we'll continue to get our study materials ready for a presentation to the Legislature."
Coalition members said the letter was not an endorsement of a competing, privately financed plan that would build a similar bridge a few miles up the Detroit River. That $1.2 billion plan, financed by local businessman Matty Maroun, is apparently well underway, as his company sold corporate bonds to begin work earlier this month.
State officials late yesterday began voting on a series of bills that make up the 2010 budget, but are expected to continue to wrangle over some of the more controversial bills that would dramatically cut spending to eliminate a $2.8 billion deficit.
