Detroit River. Te parkway is projected to be open for traffic later this year. At its western terminus, the Parkway will connect the NITC Bridge. Te new six-lane bridge crossing the Detroit River will be constructed, operated, maintained and financed through a unique public-private partnership. A non-recourse financing deal with a private consortium will ultimately be put into place, rewarding the investors a long- term franchise to recover their investments, pay their shareholders, and pay for repairs and maintenance. After the franchise lapses, the bridge will revert to mutual State of Michigan and Canadian control. Te two will then split both the profits from and the costs of operating and maintaining the structure. Te entire bridge project will include the structure itself along with two border
Jack Kohane on the Canadian Sailings website points out why the bridge is so important to the people, businesses and government in Canada:
Mark Butler, the Transport Canada spokesperson for the Windsor Gateway Project, commenting on the Government of Canada’s willingness to contribute the funds that the State of Michigan would normally be responsible for to connect the bridge to the U.S. Interstate network (up to $550 million), said “a secure and efficient Windsor- Detroit trade corridor is vitally important to the economies of Ontario and Michigan, and indeed to all of Canada and the United States,” and that “the Government of Canada remains fully committed to building a new publicly-owned crossing between Windsor and Detroit and will continue to work with the Governments of Michigan and the U.S. to deliver the new crossing.”
former Canadian diplomat Colin Robertson on the importance of keeping the border open and passable:
Colin Robertson, the former Canadian diplomat at the Canadian Embassy in Washington and former consulate general in Los Angeles, strikes a dire note on his
colinrobertson.ca blog. He writes: “Any interruption in traffic on this 80-year-old privately- owned bridge means layoffs of thousands in the first day and tens of thousands stretching south to the Carolinas on day two..”
Mr. Robertson says construction of the NITC should be a top priority in light of the fact that trade between Michigan and Canada increased by 43 per cent last year over 2009.
Photo courtesy of Ambassador Bridge
inspection plazas, each located on either side of the river. Te NITC project will also require an interchange plaza to connect the bridge’s southern terminus to the U.S. Interstate. Te total estimated cost is $4 billion.
ONE BRIDGE TOO FEW At a time when federal and state governments in the U.S. are increasingly looking to cut money from public spending, and at a time when the City of Detroit has literally gone bankrupt, the NITC seems to be a win-win scenario for the State of Michigan. Canada has offered the $550 million toward the cost of the interchange plaza to be paid-back via tolls from the completed bridge. An article by
22 22 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2014
Te new project would eliminate 20 street light intersections for international travelers heading to Detroit from Windsor, improving the flow of traffic across the border while simultaneously leaving local streets to local traffic. But, more importantly, the improved connectors, highways and bridge address a doomsday scenario that could spell economic catastrophe on both sides of the border. Te 84-year-old Ambassador Bridge is the only bridge currently connecting the cities. If the bridge was damaged or attacked in some manner that halted border crossing, traffic and commerce would come to a standstill and it’s estimated that thousands of jobs and millions in revenues could be lost from even a relatively short interruption. Kokane’s article quotes
JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2014 WIRE ROPE EXCHANGE WIRE ROPE EXCHANGE
THE JOBS Of course, one of the strongest selling points for a large infrastructure project like NITC is job-generation. Te bridge agreement between the U.S. and Canada calls for approximately 10,000 project construction jobs that will be split between the two countries. Te plan also includes a clause that only Canadian and U.S. steel will be used in the project. In addition, both sides of the border seem committed to marshaling local contractors and sub-contractors during various stages of the project. While the Michigan side of the NITC has yet to break ground, a number of Ontario-based companies are already partnered with the project and working on the new parkway in Windsor. Founded in 1987, Amico began as a contractor and engineering firm based in Oldcastle, Ontario just outside of Windsor. Since that time, the company has grown and diversified into an infrastructure building and design concern with a number of high profile construction contracts to its credit. A visit to their website finds a whole section dedicated to the Herb Gray Parkway including a Progress Blog featuring breaking updates on road cutting, pipe installation and wall building on the Parkway’s ramps. AMEC was founded in 1848 as a
construction company in the UK. Today, AMEC supplies consultancy, engineering and project management services to clients in the oil and gas, mining, clean energy, environment and infrastructure markets. AMEC’s contributions to the parkway project
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