Ambassador to replace all lanes on deck

DETROIT — Despite a good report from safety consultants, the Ambassador Bridge Co. is planning a complete deck replacement across the bridge.

All four lanes of the privately-owned bridge will be replaced. Work on the structure will likely begin next spring and could take a couple of years to complete.

The overall safety of the 80-year-old bridge has made headlines recently as the bridge owner, Matty Moroun, sued to keep a third party safety report out of the public eye.

Moroun won a temporary restraining order to keep Ambassador Bridge repair records away from the public, but a U.S. District Judge has denied a request to continue keeping the report a secret. According to Detroit media, the judge ruled that Moroun’s Detroit International Bridge Co. had not made a convincing case why it would be irreparably harmed by the release of the report.

U.S. Rep. John Dingell, (D-Mich) had obtained the report and threatened to release it. The bridge company was suing to prevent Rep. John Dingell from releasing the report, which was conducted in 2007.

With the 2007 report about to be revealed to reporters, Moroun decided to make available another report conducted in 2008. Both reports declared the bridge, “overall fair condition.”

A similar conclusion about the bridges condition was drawn by Transport Canada recently after monitoring private safety inspections of the Ambassador Bridge. Moroun reportedly hires his own third-party consultant to inspect the bridge annually and turns over the report to federal authorities.
 


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