Detroit — Someone suddenly flipped on the lights at the still unfinished Gordie Howe International Bridge last week, and the town went berserk!
And why not? We’ve been kept in the dark about almost everything else on the multi-billion-dollar boondoggle.
The bridge is a joint-venture between the state of Michigan and the Canadian government. Canada fronted all the money to build it and will collect all the tolls until it recoups its investment. Only then will Michigan share in the proceeds.
When the deal was first announced back in 2012, the estimated cost was $2 billion. Then it was $4 billion. Then it was $4.8 billion. Then it was $5.7 billion. It was supposed to be completed last year at a cost of $6.4 billion.
It’s still not done, and the smart money puts the final costs north of $7 billion. (This does not include the unspecified millions the U.S. will shell out for customs and border inspections each year.)
Traffic across the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel has fallen by nearly 60% since the year 2000 as auto manufacturing has shifted to the Southern U.S. and Mexico. At that rate, according to an independent study from 2018, the Gordie Howe Bridge will never pay for itself.
Never.
That means Canada’s grandchildren will get all the debt, and Michigan’s grandchildren will get all the smog.
Oh, Canada!
To date, no one has clearly explained how the bidding process worked. How could a consortium of companies win the design, construction, and maintenance contracts when it includes a Spanish firm that has paid more than $100 million in fines for fraud and bid-rigging?
Canada is our neighbor. Spain isn’t. Doesn’t that present a security risk?
And where did the steel for the bridge come from? Was it made in the U.S.? Canada? China? A mix of Canada and China? Again, we haven’t been told. Isn’t that what the tariff war is all about?
And how did Justin Trudeau’s infrastructure minister get his job overseeing construction of the 1.5-mile, six-lane span across the Detroit River? The man—a former bus driver—had no college degree, no construction experience, and spent nearly two years in an Indian prison for suspected ties to terrorism.
Why wasn’t the Moroun family, who owns the Ambassador Bridge, allowed to build a new span with private money as they had offered? Taxpayers wouldn’t have paid a nickel. Americans would have had jobs.
It’s all so absolutely Michigan. When will government learn to get out of the way? Whitmer tried throwing billions at multinational corporations, and all we got were parking lots.
The bright side here? At least we get some tasteful LED lighting twinkling on the Detroit River.
Charlie LeDuff is a reporter educated in public schools. Follow him on X @Charlieleduff.
