CALL TO ACTION: NEW INTERNATIONAL TRADE CROSSING

CALL TO ACTION: THE NEW INTERNATIONAL TRADE CROSSING:

This week the Michigan Senate ( transportation committee) as well as the full Senate may take a vote on the New International Trade Crossing in Detroit.

THEY NEED TO HEAR FROM THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY!!!!

We need you to contact our Senators and tell them you support the bridge project and we need them to support it with a yes vote.

The Northern Michigan Regional Chamber Alliance supports the new bridge.  The Detroit-Windsor corridor handles approximately 25 to 30 percent of all trade between the United States and Canada. More than eight million American jobs depend on that trade.  The new bridge would add redundancy as an alternate route for industrial traffic as well as provide security in the case if anything were to happen to the current border crossing. The direct connection between I-75 and Highway 401 would save Michigan shippers and manufactures millions of dollars currently lost to delays.  The Alliance believes the conceptual plan for a second bridge will build on Michigan’s current $44 billion a year trade partnership with Canada and provide additional capacity to allow the movement of more goods and services across the border for Michigan and the all of North America along the NAFTA Trade Corridor. With Canada’s continued investment in ports in Halifax and Montreal it is imperative that Michigan be connected to global markets and be relevant in America’s continuing international commerce.

HOW CAN YOU HELP?  Call the office or send an e-mail.

If you call and get a staff person, tell them who you are and that you are calling to offer support (use information above).  They keep track of calls and will let the Senator know you called.

State Senators:

35th District:  Darwin Booher

(517) 373-0741   SenDBooher@senate.michigan.gov

36th District: John Moolenaar

(517) 373-7946    SenJMoolenaar@senate.michigan.gov

37th District:  Howard Walker

(517) 373-5144    senhwalker@senate.michigan.gov

38th District:  Tom Casperson

(517)373-7840    SenTCasperson@senate.michigan.gov

Additional Background information released this week

The Ambassador Bridge did experience a 2.51% decline in total traffic for September 2011 compared to September 2010. The first inclination would be to ascribe this loss of traffic to the sputtering economy as it tries to recover from the recent deep recession.

However, when one looks at the traffic numbers for other crossings, both in Michigan and elsewhere in the northeast, another picture emerges. Total traffic volumes for September 2011 were up compared to September 2010 at the Blue Water Bridge (up 7.62%), at the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel (up 3.39%) and at the International Bridge in Sault Ste. Marie (up 7.61%). Looking at Buffalo, NY, total traffic at the Peace Bridge was up 1.64%, the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge was up 14.72%, the Rainbow Bridge was up 12.81% and the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge was up a whopping 37.19%.

In fact, of the 11 crossings that are members of the Public Bridge Operator’s Association (PBOA), only one other crossing besides the Ambassador Bridge, showed a decline in overall traffic for September 2011, and that was the Thousand Islands Bridge (down 0.33%). The Thousand Islands Bridge, which connects Alexandria Bay, New York to Gananoque, Ontario, carried a total of 2,077,872 vehicles in 2010 (359,934 of then trucks) and year to date is running 1.07% behind last year. The Ambassador Bridge, which last year handled 7,232,366 vehicles (2,683,047 of them trucks) is currently running 0.07% behind last year’s pace.

Since all of the other crossings are seeing increased traffic volumes, perhaps the decline in volumes observed at the Ambassador Bridge is the result of drivers attempting to avoid the construction both on the bridge (the current re-decking project) and on the bridge plaza (the, as yet uncompleted Gateway Project).