LANSING – Federal Highway Administration approval of the final environmental impact statement for the controversial Detroit River International Crossing, which calls for construction of a new bridge close to Fort Wayne and Zug Island in the downriver area of Detroit, was issued on Friday, Department of Transportation officials said.
That opens the way for the public to review the environmental impact for the project and make comments. Those comments are due in the department by January 5, 2009.
Copies of the report are in the department’s office in Lansing and in 20 other locations in Detroit and the southwest suburbs.
The executive summary of the report alone is 55 pages, and outlines construction of three different plaza areas on the Canadian side and one large plaza on the Detroit side, with the bridge connecting off I-75. The report also discusses a series of possible alternative locations for the new span as well as various types of bridges that could be built.
Because the Ambassador Bridge company already plans on building a second span, but has not yet gotten the approval from Canadian officials, legislative Republicans have been loathe to move ahead with something they are concerned is not needed given current traffic projections and the estimated cost. They would prefer that the Ambassador Bridge project go ahead.
But business groups in the Detroit area as well as Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, as well as most Canadian officials, prefer the location that puts a new bridge downriver from the Ambassador Bridge.
Legislators included in the 2008-09 Transportation budget authorization for some planning functions to go on, but require that final approval of any state expenditures for the bridge come from them.
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