Bridge Delays
A legislative impasse continued Tuesday morning over the location and ownership of a proposed second bridge across the Detroit River between Detroit and Windsor, threatening to derail the 2009 state transportation budget and funding for road projects already under construction.
The transportation budget must be approved by the House and Senate before Oct. 1 to avoid a shutdown of Michigan's Department of Transportation and all state highway projects.
Senate Republicans want to add a stipulation to the budget bill that prohibits MDOT from continuing preparations for a public bridge across the Detroit River without legislative approval.
They favor letting the owner of the Ambassador Bridge build a second, privately owned span next to the exiting bridge, using his own money, before deciding whether a publicly owned span also is needed.
When the six-member House-Senate conference committee deadlocked on the bridge issue Tuesday morning, their session was recessed. The conference committee must approve MDOT's proposed $3.6-billion budget before the full House and Senate get a chance to vote on it.
The second bridge is needed to continue growth of Michigan and Ontario. Without it, Michigan will become second tier in one more area of commerce. Is that what the citizens of Michigan want? Forget about whether Windsor got the better of the deal, instead move on for increased prosperity.
The Michigan Department of Transportation is not a perfect bureaucracy. But what it does not need is legislators nit picking at its basic decisional inclinations. After all they’re a Transportation Commission which is supposed to act as a watchdog.
…Because of the stalemate, Transportation Director Kirk Steudle notified contractors that his department may suspend operations on Oct. 1 -- when the current budget expires -- and shut down road projects across the state.
…If lawmakers can resolve their differences, the House-Senate committee could reconvene later Tuesday to approve the transportation budget. It then would have to be passed by both legislative chambers.
