Wayne County Circuit Judge Prentis Edwards ordered
Michigan DOT to take over the portion of Detroit’s Gateway Project linking the
Ambassador Bridge to Interstates 96 and 75, and construction crews have begun
demolishing Pier 19, the “ramp to nowhere” owned by billionaire Manuel Moroun,
which stood in the way of the MDOT project. Through his companies Detroit
International Bridge Company and Canadian Transit Company, Moroun owns the Ambassador
toll bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Pier 19 was the
aborted beginning of a second privately owned billion dollar bridge Moroun
wanted to build alongside the Ambassador, to maintain his monopolies on truck
traffic tolls and duty free diesel fuel at the border crossing. He couldn’t get
financing or regulatory approval to complete construction of the second bridge.
The Ambassador, a suspension bridge over the
Detroit River, was built in 1929 with what was the longest suspended central
span in the world until construction of the George Washington Bridge in 1931.
Moroun’s ownership of the bridge gives him a monopoly on more than 25% of all
truck shipped merchandise trade between Canada and the United States, producing
truck tolls of over $135,000.00 per day. In addition, Moroun’s Ammex Detroit
Duty Free Store, a monopoly seller of duty free motor fuel, sells gasoline and
diesel fuel to folks for a pump price a few cents less than nearby filling
stations, while avoiding $0.60 per gallon in Canadian and American motor fuel
taxes. Moroun pockets the difference of fifty to fifty five cents a gallon.
Canadian and Michigan authorities have proposed a Detroit River International
Crossing bridge directly connecting US Interstates 75 and 94 in Michigan with
Canadian Highway 401, which would take the truck traffic from the Ambassador
off the surface streets in Windsor, and break Moroun’s monopoly on tolls and
duty free fuel sales.
