Last week's announcement of a plan to build a new bridge between Detroit and Windsor was welcome news. The New International Trade Crossing (NITC) project is not only a down payment on metropolitan Detroit's future; it is also emblematic of the kind of strategic infrastructure investment we should be making around the country to invigorate our national economy.
Now, talking about freight, moving goods from Point A to Point B is not the kind of discussion that is likely to stir the blood in most people. But it is part of the economic lifeblood of major metros like Detroit. Aging infrastructure acts like cholesterol in our economy's arteries, and we need to clean that out if we're going to be competitive in the modern global marketplace.
We must have a robust air, rail, water, and roadway system, and strengthening that system is a prime mover for transformative investments that boost economies in the short and long run. Dredging the port in Miami, untangling rail lines in Chicago, expanding airports Memphis and Louisville, and building a new bridge in Michigan are examples of these kinds of investments. They are valuable as job creators and, more importantly, as integral and specific elements to accelerating growth in metropolitan economies.
To grow jobs in the short term and build a solid economy for the long term, metropolitan areas like Detroit need to build on their strengths. This is where the NITC can help.
One of the region's economic strengths is in the trade, transportation, and logistics sector. Of course, automotive manufacturing is synonymous with Detroit, but our analysis of Moody's data shows that 10 percent of metropolitan Detroit's GDP comes from using vehicles for the movement and delivery of people and cargo.
Michigan alone exports more goods Canada than to all other foreign countries combined. The highway portion of the Detroit-Windsor border handles 17 percent of total U.S. trade with Canada and 30 percent of the trade that moves by truck.
It's a crucial corridor. But since there are relatively few border crossings, traffic builds up at bridges and through tunnels. In the wake of 9/11, enhanced security operations increased wait times at some crossings even while traffic levels dropped. Crossings such as the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel also force freight to compete with passenger cars and Canadians hopping across the border for, of all things, cheaper American gas.
This is a problem; because freight supply chains have grown more complex and very sensitive to transportation-related disruptions as companies have shifted from standard warehousing of goods to sending smaller, more frequent shipments. Worse case for Michigan is that delays, disruptions, and uncertainties could force shippers to look elsewhere for their operations, like Chicago or Buffalo.
Many U.S. metros recognize the impacts that shifts in global goods movement can have on their economies. Look at how metros in the southeastern U.S. are racing to put together investment plans and expanding their ports to accommodate the supersized ships soon to be sailing through the expanded Panama Canal.
But unlike the myriad seaport projects in the southeastern U.S., the NITC enjoys support and is recognized as a strategic investment by the highest levels of government on both sides of the river. Indeed, Canada's national policy for trade recognizes the corridor as essential to their national economy. Which is, no doubt, why they're committed to paying for so much of it.
For a project with such a clear benefit to the state, Michigan is -- amazingly -- not on the hook for any of the costs. Through the intergovernmental agreement with Canada, a private concessionaire will be responsible for everything that goes in to building, operating, and maintaining the $1 billion bridge part. The customs plaza on the American side will be paid for by the national governments of both countries. Canada alone will take care of the plaza on their side, plus the connection to I-75 in Detroit.
With a solid economic case, financial plan, and international agreements at the highest level, it would be a disgrace to allow this opportunity to provide a substantial economic boost to the region -- and, by extension, the nation, be lost.
Take away the $4 billion so far in food products, and the $1 billion in agricultural products, and you'd lose weight while you freeze in the dark, and be $25 billion ahead.
How about the $9 billion in chemicals, the $8 billion in primary metals, and the $5 billion in machinery, and you'd be unemployed because your remaining manufacturing shut down for lack of same, and $47 billion will be yours to enjoy.
Good thing you don't need to drive to work, what with $22 billion in transportation equipment missing from your infrastructure.
Could go on and on.
Canada is a first world country. Our trade with the US is mutually beneficial. The border crossing is politically important to us because of the traffic problem on our side of the border, and that we want to build a new bridge is also beneficial to Detroit for very different reasons. Mutually beneficial...
We are not China, you know.
only some temporary US contruction workers will benefit from the acutally construction
• Acciona SA, Madrid, Spain
• ACS Group, Toronto
• Bank of Nova Scotia, Toronto
• BMO Capital Markets, Chicago office
• Bouygues Travaux Publics SA, Paris
• Cintra Infraestructuras SAU, Madrid
• Citigroup Global Markets Inc., New York City
• Daelim Industrial Co. Ltd., Seoul, South Korea
• Flatiron Construction Corp., Longmont, Colo.
• Fluor Enterprises Inc., Austin, Texas
• Global Via Infraestructuras SA, Madrid
• Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP, Ottawa
• Hochtieff PPP Solutions North America Inc., New York City, Toronto
• Kiewit Cos., Vancouver
• Macquarie Group Ltd., Sydney, Australia
• Meridiam Infrastructure, AECOM Technical Services Inc., New York City
• PCL Civil Constructors Inc., Edmonton, Alberta
• Scott Associates Architects Inc., Toronto
• SNC-Lavalin Inc., Montreal
• Walsh Construction Co., Chicago
• Walter Toebe Construction Co., Wixom
the list you have above, besided the obviously foreign ones, are mostly subcontractors putting in for small bits of the job, and you may as well leave out all the finacial institutions looking to cash in, they are not actual construction companies
the fact remains that there are only 3 major construction firms in the serious running Cintra, BTP and McQuarie
eminent domain and property rights of those that will be dislocated - largely minority communites that don't have the deep pockets to be properly represented legally
And that it will be owned operated by a private entity - with no apparent obligation and accountability to the taxpayers and citizenry
You should be very glad to hear that it will not be owned by a private entity in the way that you understood, in that the private entity concerned, will be a "private" crossing authority controlled by a public international commission, half Canadian, half American.
This is of course unlike the current bridge, which is the personal property of an American citizen, who is reputably doing everything possible to prevent this publicly owned bridge from being constructed at all.
And of course, while Canada is fronting all of the money for the bridge, Canada will be paid back by the "private" crossing authority (owned half and half by the American and Canadian publics) by way of tolls.
And yet you only offer the party line propganda, the fact reamins in the private enterprise the taxpayers get no seat at the table
obviously there is more in it for cnanada than there is in the US- otherwise they would not be fronting the money