(The following editorial by Pete Waldmeir was posted on the Detroit News website on April 7.)
DETROIT– The proposed $450 million deal to enlarge the century-old twin railroad tunnels under the river connecting Detroit and Windsor, and the planned construction of a new railway tunnel alongside of them, makes sense.
Ironically, that could be why the investors are facing opposition from politicians on both sides of the border.
On the Detroit side, the City Council three times has approved selling a needed parcel to the U.S.-based Detroit River Tunnel Partnership, only to see the deals turned down by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
On the Canadian side, the Windsor council has made it emphatically clear that it doesn’t approve of any new crossing schemes, under or over the river.
“We have the money in place, the support of unions, the Detroit council and the chamber of commerce — indirectly, even the auto companies and their suppliers,” said Marge Byington, communications director for the privately financed tunnel partnership.
“We’re not proposing to ruin any neighborhoods or displace anyone on either side. We have most of the existing right of way acquired, and we’ve done most of the impact studies.
“We’re spending money,” Byington continued, “and not only protecting jobs both in Canada and the U.S., but creating new ones. Why all the roadblocks? A good question.”
The answers probably lie as much in the politics as in the economics of the project. There’s heavy-duty money involved. Just take a look.
Presently, there are two crossing points between Detroit and Windsor: the downtown tunnel and the Ambassador Bridge. The bulk of the tunnel traffic is private passenger vehicles and buses. The bridge handles millions of trucks each year.
Grosse Pointe Shores multimillionaire Manuel “Matty” Moroun, whose family owns Cen-Tra Trucking Co. in Warren, owns the Ambassador Bridge. Moroun feels that the bridge is adequate to handle truck traffic now and in the future. And if traffic increases do warrant expansion, he’d prefer to double-deck the present structure.
Byington’s group, naturally, argues that traffic snarls at the bridge entrance — some created by extra security to guard against terrorism — require a second crossing now. The Tunnel Partnership makes a strong case. If Detroit was to free up some 24 acres of vacant land adjacent to the existing railroad tracks leading into the old tunnel on the U.S. side, there’d be a clear shot for the trucks from the river to I-75 without intruding on any private property.
On the Canadian side, the Tunnel Partnership would run the trucks and trains both along the railway right of way from Highway 401, the main route to Toronto and points north and east, without widening the existing easement.
Reasons for the opposition on the Canadian side are murky at best. On the Detroit side, however, one can’t help but wonder if Moroun may have cut some kind of a deal with Kilpatrick for a stall. Moroun owns the derelict Michigan Central Depot, which Kilpatrick wants to convert into Detroit’s new Police Headquarters, and they presently are in negotiations.
“The mayor has assured us that he’s not holding things up because of that,” Byington told me during a tour of the old tunnel on Monday. But she didn’t sound too convincing.