Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Moroun has been called many things, but "quitter" isn't one.
Moroun filed an amended complaint in federal court in Washington in a renewed effort to block the building of a $2.1 billion, six-lane bridge, the New International Trade Crossing, The Detroit News reports. In April, the U.S. State Department approved the Detroit-Windsor span.
David Shepardson of The Detroit News writes:
Moroun's Detroit International Bridge Co. filed suit in 2010 in U.S. District Court in Washington seeking to block a new crossing. On Thursday, the company filed an amended 116-page complaint naming Secretary of State John Kerry, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, the Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Coast Guard and the Canadian and U.S. governments.
The suit asks Judge Rosemary M. 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. It has 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.
Ken Silfven, a spokesman for Gov. Rick Snyder, rejects the merits of the suit, telling The News:
"It's clear that the company has adopted an aggressive litigation strategy, to no one's surprise. The people of Michigan rejected the company-bankrolled Proposal 6 last year, so now the bridge owners have taken to the courts in the hopes of protecting their monopoly."
