Retiring Ambassador Jacobson was key supporter in the NITC approval process

Posted on by

Dave Battagello
Jun 18, 2013 – 6:57 PM EDT

David Jacobson recalled Tuesday his first visit to Canada as a child when his father stopped the family Buick in the middle of the Ambassador Bridge so that his parents were sitting on the Canadian side of the border while he and his sisters in the back seat were on the American side.

It was a fond memory for the outgoing U.S. Ambassador to Canada.

“If somebody told that kid, he would one day go across the same bridge as the U.S. ambassador, he would have thought they were nuts,” said Jacobson who is leaving July 15 nearly five years after being tagged by President Barack Obama for the role.

The ambassador has made several visits to the Windsor area over the that last couple of years to be among a handful of key figures – led by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder – at meetings which secured the historic agreement to build a new downriver $1-billion Detroit River bridge.

Assisting the push to build the Detroit River International Crossing bridge and working on the required approval of a U.S. presidential permit from the Obama administration for the crossing handed down a couple of months ago is cited as one of Jacobson’s top accomplishments during his tenure.

The longtime Chicago lawyer – a key Obama fundraiser and part of his presidential transition team in 2008 – wouldn’t get into specifics during an interview with The Star on discussions he had with the president or key leaders in Washington to get the DRIC bridge agreement and presidential permit finalized.

“I’ll just say the White House is very aware of this,” he said. “This is a very important piece of infrastructure for the United States.”

During meetings leading to the DRIC bridge agreement – some held in the downtown CIBC building that is home to Transport Canada’s local office – his role was mostly to serve as facilitator along with Gary Doer, Canada’s Ambassador to the U.S., Jacobson said.

“I did have some role in this, but others were more instrumental,” he said. “Ambassador Doer and I made sure everybody kept talking and understood the issues. Our job was to keep everything moving forward.

“The time for this was right. This has gone on for quite some time.”

A spokesman for Snyder’s office said Jacobson provided a critical link at the U.S. federal level which was instrumental in moving the DRIC bridge project forward.

“His involvement and support provided a valuable assurance to both Michigan and Canada that Washington understood the project’s importance,” said Ken Silfven. “The ambassador was one of the many outstanding partners who worked in good faith to get us where we are today. His insights and diplomacy helped to pave the way and we appreciate his work.”

A Canadian federal official was also complimentary to Jacobson.

“Ambassador Jacobson has been a strong advocate and supporter of the new bridge between Detroit and Windsor,” said Mark Butler of Transport Canada. “He recognizes the economic benefits that the new crossing will bring to both countries.

“Transport Canada thanks him for his contributions to the DRIC project, as well as other Canada-U.S. transportation initiatives.”

Construction of the new bridge is expected to start in 2015 following some land acquisition in Detroit and tenders being issued. Completion is targeted for 2019 or 2020.

Jacobson had vague knowledge of the bridge controversy before becoming U.S. ambassador to Canada.

It was a predecessor  – former Michigan Gov. James Blanchard – who schooled him on the Windsor-Detroit border situation where North America’s busiest trade crossing, the Ambassador Bridge, is privately owned by billionaire Matty Moroun who has doggedly fought for a decade to stop the DRIC bridge from becoming reality.

“I had some sense of it before I came to Canada,” Jacobson said. “He explained everything to me in detail and I was saying ‘no, that can’t be right. Sure enough, he was right and that got me worked up.

“There was this private ownership and everyone was unable to move forward on something that obviously is in the best interests of people in the U.S. and Canada. I’m delighted to say we are on the path to get this thing done.”

Jacobson, 61, is leaving to become vice-chairman for BMO Financial Group and will be based at its main U.S. headquarters in his hometown of Chicago.

His successor has not yet been named, although there is talk it will be Bruce Heyman, a banking executive from Chicago who was a top fundraiser in 2012 for Obama in his bid for a second term.

Private Talks About Bridge

Posted on by

Prime Minister Stephen Harper got a private audience with U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday at the G8 summit in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland.

The two leaders went for a stroll and Harper discussed international security issues, the Beyond the Border perimeter security initiative and the new international crossing between Windsor and Detroit.

“We discussed a range of Canada-U.S. issues that you would expect – obviously, the Keystone pipeline… We discussed the progress we have made on the Detroit River International Crossing.”

Courtesy of the Windsor Star

Ambassador Bridge listed as worst road in Windsor: CAA survey

Posted on by

Melanie Borrelli, CTV Windsor
Published Tuesday, June 18, 2013 12:05PM EDT

The Ambassador Bridge earned the top spot as the worst road in Windsor, according to a province-wide report by CAA.

The bridge road ranked 37th on Ontario’s Worst Roads of 2013, based on votes submitted to the auto club.

John Ennis, government relations for CAA South Central Ontario, says there is an unusual twist to Windsor’s top-voted spot.

“The interesting thing is that the Ambassador Bridge is a border crossing, not a municipally or provincially owned road,” says Ennis.

CAA usually provides the information to Queen’s Park and municipal officials. In Windsor’s case, Ennis says they will likely contact the Ambassador Bridge Company with the statistics.

He says they received quite a few votes for Windsor, although he didn’t have the specific number.

The other bad areas in Windsor were Riverside Drive, which came in at 45th worst in the province and Walker Road, which was 46th.

The last time Windsor had a road on the official top 10 list was in 2008, and it was Tecumseh Road.

“It’s been about five years since Windsor has appeared on the list, so I guess that’s a good sign,” says Ennis.

For two years in a row, Dufferin Street in Toronto has been voted the worst road in Ontario. Over the years, Dufferin Street has made list seven times, not far behind Steeles Avenue which previously earned eight spots on the list.

Half of the roads on the top 10 list this year are from the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.

Over month-long campaign, CAA received over 10,000 votes from across the province, says Ennis. Of the roads in the top 10, 90 per cent of the voters complained about crumbling pavement and pothole-ridden streets as the reasons for selecting the roads.

 

Feds asks judge to dismiss lawsuit by Ambassador Bridge owners

Posted on by

Washington — The Obama administration on Tuesday asked a federal judge in Washington to throw out a three-year-old lawsuit by the owners of the Ambassador Bridge that seeks to compel the Coast Guard to grant it a permit to build a second bridge and block a new government-owned Detroit River crossing.

But the court battle over a new Detroit River crossing isn’t likely to be resolved until at least early 2014, a court scheduling order shows. The Ambasasador Bridge’s owners filed a new version of their lawsuit in late May asking a federal court to also block a new government owned crossing.

U.S. District Judge Rosemary M. Collyer gave the Justice Department until Aug. 30 to respond to the latest version of the suit. She gave both sides a series of deadlines to file motions, but won’t decide whether to let the suit go forward until after Dec. 20.

In April, the U.S. State Department announced approval of the $2.1 billion six-lane bridge, ending a lengthy review of the New International Trade Crossing in an effort to survive legal challenges from Ambassador Bridge owner Manuel “Matty” Moroun. He has spent millions of dollars trying to block the project for nearly a decade.

Moroun’s Detroit International Bridge Co. first filed suit in 2010 in U.S. District Court in Washington seeking to block a new crossing. Late last month, the company filed an amended 116-page complaint naming Secretary of State John Kerry, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, the Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Coast Guard and the Canadian and U.S. governments.

Since July 2004, DIBC has sought a navigation permit from the Coast Guard, necessary to build a new crossing.

The bridge owners argue “that the Coast Guard regulations should not apply to it because if the Coast Guard complies with its regulation (as it must), that allegedly will lead to DIBC having to pay exorbitant prices for the property rights necessary to build the bridge it has designed,” said the 74-page court filing signed by Brian Collins, a Justice Department attorney. “Without a hint of irony, DIBC portrays itself as a helpless victim being squeezed to overpay for property rights by an agency that has the temerity to try and fairly apply its regulations.”

The court filing raises a number of hurdles to the Ambassador Bridge owners building a second span. It cites the fact that a significant part of Detroit’s Riverside Park would be needed for a new bridge — but that since the land was obtained through a National Park Service grant, it would require both the state and federal government to approve the sale of park land.

The Coast Guard argues that since the owners haven’t acquired the land necessary, they can’t issue a final decision on the permit, saying it is incomplete. “If an applicant did not have to demonstrate that it had the right to build in a specific location, it could simply seek a bridge permit on the hope that it might be able one day to get the property rights necessary to build the bridge,” the government said. “It would force the agency into reviewing purely hypothetical plans for hypothetical bridges.”

The suit asks Collyer to block the crossing, arguing it seeks to “usurp” the Ambassador Bridge’s “ability to maintain their franchise by building a new span” and violates the terms of a 1921 agreement creating the privately owned Ambassador Bridge, which carries more than one quarter of all U.S.-Canadian commercial traffic. The company argued the agreement’s “right to repair, replace and enlarge” the Ambassador Bridge means the governments should allow the Ambassador Bridge company to build a second span, but it has been blocked for more than a decade.

The Ambassador Bridge has been in operation since 1929. Forbes magazine said the bridge takes in $60 million in tolls annually and $15 million in gas and duty-free sales.

Moroun’s revised legal challenge also argues Congress must approve the bridge and the crossing violates Michigan law, citing four statutes enacted by the state Legislature since 2012. His suit says the company has spent hundreds of millions of dollars upgrading and improving the Ambassador Bridge. The U.S and Canadian governments will file formal responses in the coming months before a hearing is held on the suit.

Moroun’s committee spent more than $33 million in a failed attempt to convince Michigan voters last fall to approve a constitutional amendment aimed at blocking a new bridge.

Canadian leaders view a new bridge as their country’s biggest transportation project and have agreed to front Michigan’s $550 million share of the cost, which will be repaid through toll revenue. The Canadians also have pledged to reimburse Michigan taxpayers for any expenses the state Department of Transportation incurs in connecting the new bridge to Interstate 75 through an international plaza in southwest Detroit.

But the Snyder administration and Canadian government still will have to deal with Moroun as they try to finish assembling land for the project. One of Moroun’s companies owns a handful of parcels required for the bridge and plaza.

Much of the vacant land in the area is owned by the city. With the presidential permit in hand, Snyder said construction could begin as early as 2015, depending on how long the legal challenges take. The crossing may open for traffic by 2020. The project is expected to create 12,000 direct construction jobs and as many as 31,000 indirect jobs.

Moroun, 85, and his family are among the richest people in the United States. He and his family are worth $1.1 billion, according to Forbes.

From The Detroit News: 
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130618/METRO08/306180084#ixzz2WbDlm3ah

NITC Bridge Named One of the World’s Most Spectacular Infrastructure Projects

Posted on by

Sky trains, super bridges: 8 of the world’s most spectacular infrastructure projects


By Eoghan Macguire, for CNN

The dominant economic chatter may be of austerity but ambitious transport infrastructure projects continue
In many emerging nations transport spending is speeding ahead while large projects also continue in the developed world
Massive bridges, airports, metro systems and canal’s are currently all in the works

The Gateway goes behind the scenes of the world’s major transport hubs, revealing the logistics that keep goods and people moving. This month, the show is in Singapore.

(CNN) — Austerity, spending cuts and deficit reduction.

With all the talk of fiscal restraint, it’s easy to assume there’s little in the coffers for the sort of vast infrastructure projects we’ve seen over the last century.

True, the EU has reduced its transport infrastructure budget through 2020, while groups like the American Society of Engineers have stated that too little is being put aside to fund the big projects of tomorrow — but it’s not all doom and gloom.

In many emerging nations transport spending is speeding ahead at breakneck pace, while in the developed world large projects have continued despite the rumbling aftershocks of the 2008 financial crash.

Here, we take a look at some of the biggest, most important and spectacular transport infrastructure developments currently in the works around the world.

Panama Canal

Already an engineering wonder, the 99-year-old Panama Canal is being upgraded to cater for the ever increasing heft of the world’s merchant shipping fleet. Construction was approved in 2006 and is due for completion in 2014.

See also: 7 of the world’s most entertaining airports

The $5.25 billion project will add three 1,400-foot-long, 180 foot wide and 60-foot-deep locks to each end of the 51-mile aquatic passageway that links the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. This enhanced capability will enable the canal to cater for more of the giant container vessels that are increasingly favored by the world’s largest shipping companies.

A few hundred miles to the north meanwhile, early plans are afoot to build a new canal in Nicaragua with even greater capacity at a cost of $40 billion.

Marmaray Project

A city straddling two continents, Istanbul has long been a strategic gateway between Europe and Asia.

Now, construction of one of the world’s deepest submerged transport tunnels is pulling east and west even closer together. The Marmaray Project is a 76-kilometer (47.2-mile) subterranean railway development that will ferry travelers under a 1.4-km (0.9-mile) section of the Bosphorus Strait and connect busy railway lines on either side of the historic waterway.

The project began in 2004 and is due to be completed towards the end of 2013, later than originally planned due to delays caused by thearchaeological sensitivity of the surrounding area.

Beijing’s new international airport

Playing host to eight runways and with the capabilities to cater for 130 million passengers every year, Beijing’s new international airport will be among the world’s largest and busiest when it is slated to come online in 2017 (although Istanbul’s recently announced third airport will trump it with a 150 million capacity when it opens in 2018).

Air travel has expanded rapidly in China in recent years in line with the country’s booming economy. In 2011, the Chinese governmentannounced plans to increase the total number of airports in the country from 175 to 230 by 2015 to cope with demand.

Beijing alone is set to handle between 450 and 500 million passengers every year by then, meaning the city’s existing airports need assistance to cope with the expected rise in demand. Construction of the new airport, which will be situated in the city’s Daxing district, was confirmed in January 2013 and is due to begin in early 2014, according to local media.

Etihad Rail Network

In a land brimming with ostentatious development projects, the nitty-gritty of rail infrastructure pales when compared to the world’s tallest building or man-made luxury islands — but it shouldn’t.

The 1,200 kilometer Etihad Rail network will extend across the desert hinterland of the United Arab Emirates, from the border of Saudi Arabia in the west to the frontiers of Oman in the east.

Costing $11 billion and taking in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and all of the Northern Emirates, developers hope the freight and passenger project will eventually join up with an international rail network covering Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar.

Hyderabad Metro

Towering high above chaotic din of inner-city traffic, the Hyderabad Metro system is expected to provide daily transport for up to 1.7 million of the southern Indian city’s residents by 2017, according to the regional government.

The $2.1 billion project will provide 72 kilometers of elevated track with stations every one kilometer. Developers say the system will improve journey times, reduce traffic on roads and provide an eco-friendly mass transport alternative to polluting car or bus journeys.

The LAPSSET Project

In 2012 the presidents of Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan came together to launch the ambitious LAPSSET (Lamu Port–South Sudan–Ethiopia Transport Corridor) project.

The plans include an oil refinery, pipelines from South Sudan, transportation hubs for rail, road and air vehicles, plus a giant port for oil tankers. A number of tourist resort cities are also expected along the development’s path.

Costs are set to come in at around $25 billion although concerns remain over the impact on the local environment. Lamu Port is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site and the surrounding area is home to protected marine reserves and forests.

The Kenyan government has set aside $23 million for the Lamu section of the project while Reuters reported that a Chinese company had won the first tender to build three berths at the port in April this year.

London Crossrail

What the Hyderabad Metro does 20 meters above ground, London’s Crossrail project will seek to do beneath the British capital’s bustling streets and out into its sprawling suburbs.

A $23 billion development, the 73-mile rail project will connect London from East to West, improving access to Heathrow Airport, central London as well as city’s surrounding towns and suburbs.

Work began in 2009 and the first trains could be in operation as early as 2018. More than 8,000 people are involved in the project working across 40 separate construction sites.

NITC Bridge

Although not the most expensive infrastructure project in the pipeline, the $950 million New International Trade Crossing bridge — which will connect Windsor, Ontario in Canada and Detroit, Michigan in the U.S. — could well be one of the most impactful as far as international trade is concerned.

The NITC’s stated aims are to increase commerce capacity, reduce traffic bottlenecks and improve opportunities for businesses in both countries by providing a state-of-the-art, publicly operated border crossing.

See also: Is Danube Romania’s ‘blue motorway?’

Roughly 25% of all merchandise trade between Canada and the United States — one of the world’s largest bi-lateral tradepartnerships — currently cross over the Detroit River via the nearby (privately run) Ambassador Bridge, according to the bridge operator’s website.

Barack Obama ordered a presidential decree to construct the NITC in March this year, however the owners of the Ambassador Bridge have logged legal challenges against the project.

They have also announced plans to expand the existing capacity of their own facility which originally opened in 1929.

Canada Calls Ambassador Bridge Hazardous Material Study Deficient

Posted on by

The city of Windsor, Ontario, said Michigan’s recommendation to allow more hazardous materials to cross the Ambassador Bridge is based on a deficient study that doesn’t consider the 75,000 people in Canada who would be exposed to accident risk.

Windsor’s complaints were contained in a recent eight-page commentary sent to the Michigan Department of Transportation, which recommended in December that such hazmat loads as fuel, paint, gases and acids be allowed to cross, although explosives and radioactive materials would still be banned.

Michigan’s study is “fundamentally deficient because it fails to address or inadequately addresses” such things as response capability of police and fire on both sides of the border and the economic impact if the bridge is damaged in an accident, the commentary said.

“Importantly, estimates based on [Windsor] data which were not considered . . . suggest that proposed changes to . . . allow more classes of [hazmat] will possibly expose up to 75,000 more people in the Windsor area than if the routing is maintained as it is today,” said the commentary, signed by city of Windsor engineer Mario Sonego.

Originally posted by Transport Topics

New bridge would rank among the world’s longest

Posted on by

The Windsor Star

By Brian Cross

NITC Suspension Bridge

Because its towers can’t be planted in the Detroit River, the new government-backed bridge will have a tower-to-tower span that will rank it among the world’s longest.

The 1929 Ambassador Bridge ranks around 66th when it comes to suspension bridges based the 564 metres between its in-water piers. But the down-river DRIC bridge that’s supposed to be built and operating by 2020 is going to have a span of either 855 metres if it’s a suspension bridge (ranking it between 30th and 35th among suspension bridges, depending on the list) or 840 metres if it’s a cable-stayed bridge. It would be the longest cable-stayed bridge in North America and the 6th or 7th longest in the world.

The decision to not have any piers in the Detroit River goes back three or four years following discussions with the Canadian and U.S. coast guards as well as ship owners and captains, who said piers would interfere with safe navigation. The commitment was made as part of the environmental assessment. But that detail became suddenly prominent last week when MP Brian Masse (NDP – Windsor West) cited it in the House of Commons, as he argued against the way the federal government intends to build, finance and operate the $1-billion bridge through a public-private partnership.

“That decision to not have any structures in the water is the right choice,” Masse told The Star. But he said the decision means the bridge will have to be built a certain way – to go that distance between shores narrows the options down to either a suspension or cable-stayed bridge – perhaps limiting the number of qualified firms that are willing to get involved in the venture. “My concern is why are we doing a P3 (Public-Private Partnership) in the first place?”

Transport Canada spokesman Mark Butler said there is “significant” interest among private-sector companies interested in the DRIC project. “And we have confirmed this through a market sounding which sought expressions of interest.”

The next phase in the lengthy process  starts  as early as this week when geotechnical drilling will help determine how deep the on-land piers will go, and help determine what kind of bridge is ultimately built.

Shaohong Cheng, an associate professor of engineering at the University of Windsor, said it’s not important whether the piers are in the water or on land when it comes to building a bridge. In fact, piers in the water are more challenging because they require underwater construction.

“What really is important is how long is the span between the two towers,” she said. Anything over 600 metres requires either suspension or cable-spanned.

The longest bridges in the world are suspension, with the largest one, the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge in Japan, spanning 1,991 metres.  Shaped like a stylized M, they employ two massive cables to hold up the roadway, that ride freely across the towers and transmit the load to anchors at either end.

If the DRIC bridge is suspension, its towers would be 140 metres high, slightly higher than the Fisher Building in Detroit and 20 metres higher than the Ambassador Bridge towers.

A cable-stayed bridge would have towers 250 metres tall, which is 30 metres higher than the Renaissance Center.  Cable-stayed bridges also use cables to hold up the road, but these cables are attached to the towers. With a cable-stayed bridge all the load – from the vehicles, the weight of the bridge, the wind – is borne by the road bed and the towers, which transfer the load to the tower foundations. Their cables look like the ribs of an inverse fan, descending from the tower to the road bed. The longest in the world is the 1,104-metre Russky Bridge in Russia.

One factor in deciding between the two types is the soil conditions, because suspension bridges require very strong anchorages to bear the load of cables pulling horizontally. In very soft ground conditions, a suspension bridge might not be an option, said Cheng.

She said often a cable-stayed bridge is cheaper, but there are so many factors to consider when deciding between the two.

One big factor will be how various bridge models behave in wind, said Cheung, who researches wind-resistant design of bridges and buildings. Cheng said a bridge as big as this will require wind tunnel tests in which experts gather meteorological data for the area around the bridge from the last 40 or 50 years to determine the highest wind speed the bridge may encounter during its lifespan.

Transport Canada’s Butler said that “bottom line,” it’s been determined that either a cable-stay or suspension bridge will work at the DRIC site. It will be the P3 consortiums, that will do further tests including wind tests, to come forward with recommendations on which bridge is best.

All the major approvals for the bridge are in hand, and with most of the land required for the bridge and customs plaza on the Canadian side acquired, the land on the U.S. side now has to be appraised and purchased.

Following that, the government will be issuing a request for qualifications, for firms interested in the P3, said Butler. Following that there will be a request for proposals, with the start of construction expected at the end of 2015 or beginning of 2016.