(The following article by John Gallagher was posted on the Detroit Free-Press website on August 8.)
DETROIT — Teamsters President James P. Hoffa and other labor leaders endorsed a controversial plan Thursday to convert an existing railroad tunnel under the Detroit River to a truck tunnel to relieve backups at the Ambassador Bridge.
Known formally as the Detroit River Tunnel Partnership, the plan, dubbed the Jobs Tunnel by promoters, is a $400-million proposal controlled by a partnership of the Canadian Pacific Railway and Borealis Transportation Infrastructure Trust, a subsidiary of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System.
The plan has provoked great controversy in Windsor, where thousands of residents fear their neighborhoods would be affected by new high-speed truck lanes that would be built for the project.
But Hoffa and other Michigan and Ontario labor leaders said they support the plan because it would ensure the vitality of the regional economy by adding cross-border capacity for the vast U.S.-Canadian trade. They also support the plan because of agreements signed Thursday with DRTP leaders to use union labor on all aspects of its construction.
“Jobs jobs jobs, that’s our stress,” Hoffa told a new conference at the mouth of the rail tunnel in southwest Detroit. “That’s why the Jobs Tunnel is so important. Union jobs, union labor across the board, building strong communities, building strong nations.”
But Hoffa, in response to questions, made clear he also supports construction of some competing proposals. Various plans and suggestions have included building one or more new bridges in the vicinity. All such plans are the subject of a binational study under way.
“I think we want them all,” Hoffa said. “The Jobs Tunnel is very important. It’s a first step. If there are other bridges and tunnels, that’s important, too. But this is a first step.”
The plan calls for construction of a separate rail tunnel adjoining the tunnel converted for trucks. U.S. Rep. John Dingell, the Dearborn Democrat, and Detroit City Council President Maryann Mahaffey, who attended the announcement, said they support the project and its competing proposals.
“Do them all, and don’t hold any up at all. Just get them going,” Mahaffey said.
With one bridge and a tunnel linking Detroit and Windsor and only the Ambassador Bridge capable of handling heavy truck traffic, civic and corporate planners have spent years studying how to add capacity.
The perceived need for a new border crossing grew during the booming economic years of the 1990s. Tens of billions of dollars in U.S.-Canadian trade crossing the Ambassador Bridge each year sometimes created miles-long truck backups through Windsor streets that lasted for hours or days.
The need for extra capacity seemed to grow even more urgent after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Any attack that damaged or closed the Ambassador Bridge would have a devastating economic impact on both nations’ economies, given the amount of cross-border trade.
Adding to the controversy about what to do next is the private ownership of the Ambassador Bridge. The bridge is controlled by Grosse Pointe businessman Manuel (Matty) Moroun, who also owns a network of trucking companies in the United States and Canada. Major auto suppliers and other bridge customers have complained for years that Moroun’s Detroit International Bridge Co. keeps truckers’ tolls too high.
Dan Stamper, president of the bridge company, said Thursday the tolls are higher because the bridge must pay taxes and doesn’t get taxpayer subsidies, unlike government-owned bridges.
Stamper also contended the border backups are caused by insufficient staffing of customs checkpoints on the U.S. side, not a lack of lane capacity on the bridge.
Whatever the reason for the backups, proposals to add a bridge or tunnel have created a storm of protest in Windsor. Unlike in Detroit, where truck traffic off the bridge connects to nearby expressways within blocks, in Windsor truckers must drive 10 miles through the heart of town to and from the important 401 expressway.
The DRTP plan has been met with protests by residents who fear construction of high-speed truck lanes through their neighborhoods.
But the plan’s backers, Canadian Pacific and Borealis, are among the most powerful business and union interests in Canada and have managed to keep their proposal alive.
Michael Sheahan, chief executive officer of DRTP, said studies show 84,000 jobs at risk if more border capacity is not created as soon as possible. “The Jobs Tunnel will do that, and it can be up and running in only five years,” he said.
On the Detroit side of the border, two related proposals were submitted to the Detroit City Council recently to sell two parcels of city-owned land near the tunnel to DRTP for the project. But the proposals were pulled pending a briefing for the council in September into the various competing border proposals and to hear from nearby residents.
“Council really wants to get a full picture of what all the interests are and who all the parties are,” said Marsha Bruhn, director of the City Planning Commission, which serves as the council’s research and planning arm.