Moroun family calls it “quits” and closes bridge indefinitely! Only..
…bridge maintenance staff will be kept on, hundreds out of work immediately!
Claiming financial turbulence with declining truck and car traffic revenue and political interference, the Ambassador Bridge Company has decided to close the Ambassador Bridge indefinitely as soon as possible! The earliest will be today at 6:00 PM! Moroun states that the rapid decline of auto manufacturing in North America, it is no longer possible or viable to make a profit owning and operating the Ambassador Bridge without raising tolls on other vehicle traffic which at this time is prohibitive given the state of the NA economy, the company states.
Well that would be a headline! It is a privately owned business, much to the chagrin of our mayor and our federal and provincial governments. Governments on both sides of the border have thrown up road block after road block to stop the ABC from building their new enhanced span to replace an “eighty” year old bridge. That bridge has done more for the auto industry in Windsor than any other private business in this city. If it weren’t for the presence of the bridge, JUST IN TIME delivery would be a farce for the auto companies, especially for Windsor! They deserve better treatment than what they are getting. And yes they made money doing it! But also investing it back into smoothing the flow of traffic, to the point that backups are not really a problem now.
If declining revenue becomes too great for any business to operate, then layoffs are an option or closing the business outright is a tool of our free capitalist system. Any business owner has that right. Just look around Windsor today!
What if they did close their bridge? Anybody think of that? Heck! I could think of one scenario that sounds legit, in that the Ambassador Bridge engineers could “suspect” a weakening of one of the suspension cables. How long would take to diagnose it, test it and “fix’ it! Weeks? Months? Think of the immediate backups down Wyandotte Street and every other street trying to get to the tunnel.
Meanwhile, there are no shovels in the ground or anywhere near the ground to build the “DRIC” bridge. But ABC has the plans and the private money –not “our” money, as the province tries to seduce a P3 into building their bridge, which we will in perpetuity subsidize. And they pay hefty property and business taxes to boot!
What will we do? As a private business Mr. Moroun and family have that right!
If as the media and blogs state, that truck traffic has rapidly declined all over North America is there any reason to build any bridge at this time? Subsidized or not! Privately owned or not!
If DRIC does build their bridge down river from the Ambassador Bridge, will people coming from the U.S. turn left to come to Windsor or just keep going or heaven forbid, think that Lasalle being closer is Windsor! If I was a Lasallian, I would be looking at taking advantage of the DRIC bridge and its closer proximity, to enhance my town!
It just dawned on me! That is why the city has allowed the go ahead to build Big Box stores on the far west side of Windsor. It isn’t for Windsorites, its for the Americans to shop coming off the DRIC bridge, no reason to come downtown. Is Windsor Crossings on Huron Line (or what ever it is called) in Windsor or the county? I don’t know at this minute. If it is in the county then the big boxers set to be built in West Windsor is an end run around the county to grab shopper’s dollars. We all know how afraid the Americans are to drive in “Canada” and how so desperately they get lost driving in a foreign country!
Oh, as an aside, what if Moroun did build the second enhanced span and then decided for safety reasons to demolish the Ambassador Bridge, which is a historical landmark, will the residents of Sandwich go running to city hall to save that old bridge, that it will destroy the historical ambience of their Heritage neighbourhood! I just bet they will! But they don’t want to pay for it!
I just don’t understand this city and some of its citizens in their hostile attitude towards a private business just trying to make a dollar and provide a very convenient service! Oh! It’s not their dollar! We have come to know how this city runs what it has, in camera, without transparency and not consulting its citizens. Do we want the city to own and operate the bridge, the way they operate the tunnel, WUC and EnWin, the WFCU Centre, the 400 Hundred Building, Windsor Airport and look after downtown! It is for you to answer. And sadly you know the answers!
You don’t have to use the bridge, you can use the tunnel and put money in the city’s pocket!
When this city is begging for jobs … any jobs (and we are!) and we have a private business that is willing to invest their own money into their own business at no real cost to the taxpayers of this city, province and country and employ thousands of workers, why are we stonewalling them?
If Windsor is going to recover, if it recovers from this recession, diving into a depression, then we must sustain and promote a business friendly attitude to those who have invested and are willing to invest in our city and that includes the Ambassador Bridge Company!
Otherwise, Windsor is going to become a very large Tim Hortons’ beside a very old bridge on the road to anywhere else!
In it all, Matty Moroun won’t close the bridge not as long as there is someone willing to pay to use it, he and his family are to smart of a business to do that and besides they have their lawyers also!
But in the end, the feds will come in and just take the bridge and not give much to Moroun or anything to this city! All they have to do is convince the Americans that it is in their national interests and homeland security to to nationalize their side of the bridge and it is a done deal! Windsor is out!
This posting wasn’t so much generated by this article in the Windsor Star as it was by the comments in the Sound off section following the article and any other article published by the Windsor Star when it comes to a bridge in this city.
Tags: Ambassador Bridge, Auto industry, DRIC, economy, Matty Moroun, private enterprise, trucks, Tunnel, Windsor
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Seems like your doomsday scenario gives more reason not to have a private owned bridge.
Mark,
Well said! I always try to use the tunnel when possible! I do live Downtown and try to shop and eat at Downtown businesses (while they remain alive). Why do we need a second bridge now!!!
Interesting side note, having been a past employee of the the tunnel store I am aware that the property it is located on is not owned by the Moroun’s but by the U of W and they have an agreement to hire students from the U of W to work there ( in a unionized environment).
If you see the bridge closed for repairs for short periods of time I would suspect it is because it is because someone used it for their own demise.
This happens more frequently then one realizes. And will probably close more often now in our poor economic times…
The cold waters of the Detroit River can be very welcoming to some.
Movie parady: No Bridge So Far: It is 2020 and the city of Windsor is still waiting for the governments of Ontario and Canada to finalize the tenth Environmental Assessment so that they the city can challenge it in court. Understory, Windsor is going bankrupt with all the law firms involved, some now into the second generation of lawyers!
Hi Mark, Where do you live?
Answer the question and that will tell us where your agenda is coming from. Don’t lie now!
PS> Just tell us the part of the City or are you ouside the City.
Seems like, you don’t even want to think of a public owned bridge either outright by the province or the feds or any mechanism involving P3s. You and I will not have enough money to keep it open! And your children’s children will keep right on paying for it!
If the province or feds or a P3 operated the bridge for the province there will be no competition on tolls and fares and if they put Moroun out of business, who are you going to complain to.
Let’s say that the province owned and operated the bridge, do you really want more public servants with their hands in your pocket, with inflated wages, index pensions, better benefits and great contracts, while you and many more are unemployed?
And if they build the bridge in Brighton Beach, will it really serve Windsor or be a direct road into the rest of Ontario. Americans don’t want to drive all over southern Ontario just to get to the casino, maybe they will visit the race track more.
Okay, the province/feds build the DRIC bridge with inflated tolls and fares, what is it for Moroun to lower his tolls and fares in fair competition and the truckers not being dumb still use the Ambassador Bridge! P3s need a fixed set fare to make a profit, guaranteed by the province! So you end up subsidizing the P3 for their guaranteed profit on investment.
Manufacturing in North America is about to go into a state of depression, thus truck freight traffic will almost come to a stop. And if the big three disappear all together from Windsor and southern Ontario, Honda and Toyota all have plants in the Cambridge, Alliston and Waterloo area will be using the massive rebuilding of the Queensway to the Niagara border, where Moroun is building another bridge, easier to get to Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee where their other plants are, no need to go through Windsor.
With the collapse of the big 3 and their eventual disappearance, Windsor is in a no win situation, we will have a new private public bridge with no traffic!
I rather let Moroun take the gamble and build his enhanced span with his money, than the 30 to fifty years of public subsidization of a bridge that won’t be used much.
Well, why wont Moroun just work with the government and try to build a bridge that the people want, and where the people want? ps. Are you employed by Moroun?
To westendcougher and partnership, I live in Windsor, Ward 2, I don’t work for Moroun, the province or the city, I DON’T OWN A CAR, and I work in the high tech knowledge industry and I will have my job long after the car plants disappear from Wlindsor!
To these two posters above, what I do or where I live and who I work for or not is really no concern of yours. If I didn’t tell you the above, I could sitting in my home in let’s say Cairo, Egypt, it’s the beauty of the internet!
To partnership, Moroun and the Ambassador Bridge Company have bent over backwards in following all legal and environmental matters on both sides of the border and have been and are good corporate citizens. The province and this city, has and can have nothing to do with the ABC. The bridge comes under the jurisdiction of the federal government under the IBTA, the International Bridge and Tunnels Act.
To westendcougher, you’re cough should be clearing up now and in the very near future, since truck traffic to and from the auto plants in both countries is about to disappear. But then you will have to deal with the real pollution coming from Con Edison’s coke plant in River Rouge, its the stuff that can really kill you and your children but nobody over here screams about that. No car plants, no need for steel then no need for coke for the blast furnaces …no pollution. Problem solved.
Mark, you said:
“do you really want more public servants with their hands in your pocket, with inflated wages, index pensions, better benefits and great contracts”
Isn’t the library, and therefore their employees, supported by taxpayer money?
I agree with you that we are dawning on the end of manufacturing as we know it. The fact is: gas cars are passe, but manufacturing will still occur. I can see some of these old car factories cranking out rails and trains, streetcars, pre-fab buildings, all the things that we will need in a significantly reduced oil economy. Also, it is true that the AB is getting old, and a new span is needed. The problem is that it is not beneficial to have it owned and operated by a private company. Moroun has a monopoly on the region. He has allegedly purchased all the land surrounding the Michigan Central Station for the purpose of preventing the conversion of the rail tunnel to a truck path (when the DRTP plan was being talked about). In addition, he has bought all riverfront property to ensure a monopoly on the port of Detroit. In addition, the ABC apparently allows trucks from their ‘hidden’ shipping lines to cross at reduced rates, and without proper documentation for hazardous materials. (see articles in Forbes, and Detroit News) If he gets his way, he will have Ontario, and Canada on a stranglehold… this is why we need a public bridge. It trade between USA and Canada is going to continue, then why should the profits be diverted to one man? Why couldn’t they be used to benefit the region? This bridge it to be built by the Governments of ON, MI, Canada and USA, not the city of Windsor. The tax burden will be on every Canadian, and it will be NOTHING in comparison to the Vancouver games which does not affect every Canadian. Why should Canada be involved? because all goods crossing this bridge affects all Canadians. If the trucks have increased toll, then we pay increased prices for imported goods. That simple. It is no news that we need another crossing. A wider tunnel to the USA would be ideal, but it is not going to happen. I do not care if Moroun RUNS the new bridge under government ownership and guidance, but I don’t think that he should be allowed to build it where he wants, and how he wants. The 2nd span he proposes is, to be frank, ugly. It does not compliment the current span in any way. Did he get input from the residents? no. I think the brighton beach area would be best for the region (pollution reasons). I find some of your comments about bypassing Windsor interesting… I agree that something will need to be done to make traffic want to go to downtown. In response to your claims that the outlets and the walker rd areas were developed with this highway in mind: i dont think so. The legacy park development started many many years ago, and was probably pushed as a bigbox commercial area buy the developers. Im sure this was not a part of some big master conspiracy plan. Being in the high tech information field, you should know that making claims should be backed up by references and fact.
On pollution, I think that the decline in manufacturing will result in a decline in pollution, as you say. I believe that a Brighton beach bridge would expose that region for the industrial wasteland that it is, and spark some clean-up efforts. At least it has to be better than running all traffic through the Huron corridor (which pollutes housing and our ‘high tech knowledge industry’ the University).
The ABC’s “our way” and “our legacy” attitude is was makes my distrust of them grow everyday.
…not to mention the fact that diesel emissions technology has been steadily improving, resulting in the dirty-truck-pollution complaint being reduced to hyperbole.
Elimination of stop-and-go traffic will do more for this area then fantasy green buffer zones.
Yup - looks like everyone has an agenda. Come now Mark, you know you’re not entitled to your opinion.
By the way, how much are you being paid? I’m still waiting for my cheques to arrive after 4 long years.
Partnership is right.
The bridge company ought to build their bridge downriver, construct yet another plaza, force the government to duplicate border services, spread the trucks at two points in the city - makes so much more sense to me!
Who cares about the $250-million spent state-side to improve border flow and increase efficiency with the Gateway project?
Get with the program Mark! Don’t deal with reality.
(Just incase I am being sarcastic).
Yes I am a Librarian with Windsor Public Library and yes I am being paid by tax payers but as a citizen I also have the right to be watchful of all government(s) spending and investment and my position as a civil servant does not deter or interfere with my freedom of speech or expression, which a lot of people think I shouldn’t have.
A monopoly is a monopoly, either it be private or public, the single citizen doesn’t get much say either way and all these letters, community meetings in the end mean diddely squat, the state will do what it wants to do! I equally don’t trust governments at any level to work in my best interests nor any private business and at any level, both look away from internal practices that might not meet the scutiny of the public or the law.
Let’s see how much do I get paid? Twenty two years experience, four years undergraduate degree, two years graduate school is equal to a group 2 level clerk at Windsor City Hall with grade 12 and twenty thousand less than a public high school teacher with a bachelor of educaton and ten years experience..Yep! I’m deep into the pockets of Windsor. But I like what I am doing and the pay ain’t that bad and it is better than the mindless overpaid work I use to do, working on the line at Ford!!
library, you’re right, I should have checked my facts but since this article was more about throwing gasoline on a fire and showing the stupid going nowhere stance that this city has put up in its fight with Moroun that it can not win! I think that the city of Detroit sold a good portion of the derelict vacant land that you talked about to Moroun, why didn’t they stiop him then from monopolizing all that land. What is it that people don’t understand about the free market system.
If the new crossing wherever it is going to be, and you think that it is important to Canada, then why are the Feds so damn quiet about it if the bridge comes under their jurisdiction..not a peep out of them in the city verses province fight. Strange, don’t you think?
I also don’t think that Moroun’s drawings for the new bridge are ugly, I think the rust bucket thousand layers of paint on last centuries technology that is about to fall into the river is an eyesore! Quaint but useless and I can’t wait for it to come down! Historical or not!
Windsor and Ontario are way behind Michigan in green techology manufacturing and putting in place the mechanisms that will generate those jobs. Green techology..everybody in the world is looking to build green technology now but the green tech factories won’t be as big as one car plant with 3,000 grunts standing the line.
Windsor with its inability to diversifiy or act on the need to diversify will be Johnnie come lately to all this green manufacturing. Our day in the sun could be over with. Yes, some trucks will keep on rolling but not like they use to be.
library, westendcougher, partnership, do you read other blogs, such as Chris Schnuur’s Sound Off or WindsorCitybog, then you will know that the province and the feds aren’t really going to builid a bridge in Brighton Beach, what they are trying to with this city’s duplicity is get control of Moroun’s bridge, its cheaper if you can under pay the going market price for something if you threaten it’s livelyhood by stealing truck traffic or threatening to do so!
I do love throwing gasoline on a fire, so unexpected don’t you think?
Why should profits go to one man, why should a subsidized P3 built and operated bridge be in my pockets with a enacted law of guaranteed profits regardless of traffic! I’m not going out on the limb like you have library and question Moroun’s business practices, it seems that all large banks or corporations have business practices that us little folk don’t like. Corporate jets anyone! Bonuses anyone! Excessive pay anyone while your company fails or under performs!
As Chris Schnurr has written about in his blog, new techology and legislation to clean up truck diesal engines will go a lot farther to clean the air than any tunnel which only concentrates higher pollution levels in certain ends but does not get rid or clean up the pollution.
And where will the new link be built to accommodate high speed rail between Chicago and Quebec city…anybody planning for that and what neighbourhood will it cut through to get there.
Hey librarian, westendcougher and partnership, where do you work, how much do get paid. I have nothing to hide but it seems that you do and you do you have a hidden agenda?
Personnally I don’t give a crap where or who builds the bridge or who runs or who owns but I do care with all this money that this city is paying to lawyers and consultants when they know that they are basically out of the game and what the Voice of Council says, means diddely squat in the larger scheme of things.
The Windsor Tunnel Commission/Company just raised fares for Windsorites because of our falling dollar and yet vehicle traffic has declined 3% from last year which has been declining for ten years or so. Makes sense to me!
What program is that Chris? Besides no one on either side came up with the scenario that I did in the post..what if Moroun closed his bridge do the lack of vehicles thus the lack of profit to maintain the bridge. Still not answered.
The program being the only alternative is a publicly funded bridge, with artificially low tolls subsidized by the federal government to line the pockets of a private P3 investor.
Geesh
I do hope you’re realising I’m being sarcastic…
All the way Chris! No problem with you or your comments. And I knew what the alternative is..You see I read very infromative blogs, unlike the Windsour Star and what we get from city hall. I just like throwing gasoline on a fire within the bucket brigrade!
I think we’ve reached a point now where I can a couple of questions.
What value does the Ambassador Bridge Company, the traffic that flows to it on a city owned road, lined with businesses that benefit from their location have?
A follow up question. What value will a P3 bridge at the end of a controlled access highway have?
By value I believe we should consider the following measures:
dollar value to the local economy
short term and long term employment
value to quality of life for those within one kilometer of each facillity
short term and long term economic benefit at local, provincial and national level
contribution to the local community by each facillity’s stakeholders
For all the noise this issue has raised in the past few years I have yet to see anything that resembles a complete analysis of either project considered as a whole. Each side seizes on particular data sets, numbers, projections that may have no basis in the future or the present for that matter. Mostly its us vs. them rehtoric and it is devisive and ugly.
Is the Bluewater Bridge government owned or privately owned? How are they affording $2 toll for two bridges with less traffic than the one here? (just some questions that came up while reading this blog)