The Ambassador Bridge, linking Windsor to Detroit, is privately owned by Michigan-based businessman Matty Moroun. He profits from a generous 60 million dollars annually, in toll revenues and it’s no big surprise since this bridge serves North America’s busiest trade corridor, handling 500 million dollars daily.

So the Windsor-Detroit link is very important, for both Canada and the United States but there’s a huge problem. As it stands, the bridge is a bidirectional traffic nightmare featuring ongoing bottlenecks and congestion that doesn’t even spare the trucking industry which is hurting badly from this state of affairs.

In short, the clogged Windsor-Detroit crossing is a heavy barrier to both trade and travel.

Matty Moroun knows this and he’s planning another “twin-span” bridge to be erected just a few meters from the current 79-years-old Ambassador Bridge but his plans aren’t moving fast enough so the DRIC has studied alternative locations to build a new bridge, intended to resolve the massive traffic problems at the border, on both sides.

After evaluating several routes, the DRIC is said to have chosen a preferential corridor that spans from Brighton Beach, on Canada’s side of the Detroit River and lands just northeast of Zug Island, on the US side, to then travel into a plaza located in an industrial area of Detroit known as Delray.

So who’s part of DRIC?

Decisive public partners such as Transport Canada, the Ontarian Ministry of Transportation, the US Federal Highway Administration as well as the Michigan Department of Transportation are in charge of the Detroit River International Crossing Project (DRIC) binational border transportation partnership group.

The entire end-to-end project, including the Windsor-Essex Parkway, is anticipated to cost 5 billion dollars and create up to 25,000 person years of employment — this is very good news for both Windsor and Detroit workers. The final say on the new bridge’s location will however be officially announced sometime in the summer of 2008 by officials from both sides of the border.

Get a feel for the whole project with the following images from the WEParkway web site:

It’s important to note that Canada is experiencing its second-longest period of economic expansion in history. That’s mainly why Canada is investing in such modern, world-class infrastructure projects in order to foster a stronger economy, a cleaner environment and hopefully safer, more prosperous communities.

While the new bridge isn’t built yet, commuters and truckers on both sides of the border will benefit from a massively upgraded crossborder highway transportation system.

Tags: ambassador bridge, windsor, detroit, bridge, north american, trade, travel, border, prosperity

Trade using surface transportation between the United States and its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners Canada and Mexico was 14.8% higher in March 2006 than in March 2005, reaching $68.2 billion, the highest monthly level ever recorded, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) of the U.S. Department of Transportation (Table 1).

BTS, a part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), reported that total North American surface transportation trade rose 14.1% in March from February (Table 2). Month-to-month changes can be affected by seasonal variations and other factors.

The previous monthly high was $64.0 billion in October 2005. Surface transportation consists largely of freight movements by truck, rail and pipeline. About 90% of U.S. trade by value with Canada and Mexico moves on land.

Total North American surface transportation trade value in March was up 35.8% compared to March 2001, and up 100.5% compared to March 1996, a period of 10 years (Table 3). Imports in March were up 114.6% compared to March 1996, while exports were up 84.8%.

U.S. Surface Transportation Trade with Canada

U.S.–Canada surface transportation trade totaled $44.0 billion in March, up 11.4% compared to March 2005 (Table 4). The value of imports carried by truck was 8.6% higher in March 2006 than March 2005 while the value of exports carried by truck was 13.3% higher.

Michigan led all states in surface trade with Canada in March with $6.7 billion (Table 5).

U.S. Surface Transportation Trade with Mexico

U.S. – Mexico surface transportation trade totaled $24.2 billion in March, up 21.5% compared to March 2005 (Table 6). The value of imports carried by truck was 18.1% higher in March 2006 than March 2005 while the value of exports carried by truck was 21.9% higher.

Texas led all states in surface trade with Mexico in March with $7.7 billion (Table 7).

The Transborder Freight Dataset is a special extract of the official U.S. foreign trade statistics. The data are tabulated for BTS monthly by the U.S. Census Bureau’s Foreign Trade Division. March transborder numbers include data received by BTS as of May 15.

Tags: surface trade, canada, mexico, usa, foreign trade, statistics, transborder, bts

A revised international investment proposal released today by the U.S. Department of Transportation would strengthen requirements initially proposed last November concerning U.S. citizens’ control of all safety, security and national defense obligations of domestic airlines while allowing international investors to make decisions on commercial matters involving U.S. airline management.

The supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking issued by the Department reflects comments provided on the November, 2005 proposal from consumers, airlines, aviation personnel and other interested groups. That proposal would make it easier for U.S. airlines to raise money, restructure their businesses and form strategic partnerships and alliances by allowing international investors more say in some aspects of airline operations such as scheduling and marketing.

The supplemental proposal issued today would make clear that U.S. citizens who are members of a domestic airline’s board or the voting shareholders, must retain the authority to revoke decision-making authority that international investors may acquire. For example, domestic board members might decide to revoke international investors’ decision-making authority over scheduling and fleet composition if they felt that those decisions were not in their airlines’ best interests. The new provision would make clear that U.S. citizens remain in “actual control” of the airline, as required by statute.

In addition, the revised proposal would strengthen the original proposal’s requirement that U.S. citizens have full control over all policies and implementation relating to safety, security and national defense airlift commitments. The new proposal would specifically prevent international investors from having the ability to hire, fire or control the budgets of senior airline managers with direct responsibility for safety, security and national defense airlift commitments.

As with the original version, the revised proposal would only apply to international investors from countries that have Open-Skies aviation agreements with the United States and allow similar investments by American citizens in their domestic airlines.

Here’s a partial list of US domestic airliners targeted, directly or not, by this proposal:

• Alaska Air
• Aloha Air
• America West Airlines
• American Airlines
• Continental Airlines
• Delta Air Lines
• Hawaiian Airlines
• Northwest Airlines
• Pacific Coastal Airlines
• Southwest Airlines
• United Airlines
• US Airways
• WestJet Airlines
• World Airways

The Department is seeking additional comment for another sixty days to allow for all interested groups to comment on the revised proposal.

Tags: airlines, investments, us, dot, proposal, safety, security, national defense, citizens