6.13.07Bridges Falling Down
The bridge is owned and operated by the minions of one man, a reclusive Grosse Pointe zillionaire
by Jack Lessenberry
Gregg Ward is a boyish-looking 46-year-old with an interesting and crucial job you've probably never heard of. He and his dad run the Detroit-Windsor Truck Ferry, which since 1990 has been the only approved system for taking trucks carrying hazardous materials across this part of the U.S.-Canada border.
That doesn't mean the Wards take all the hazmat across. They don't. Their one barge is only allowed to operate 10 hours a day. In that time they might transport, at most, 50 trucks.
Meanwhile, something like 9,000 trucks use the Ambassador Bridge daily. Naturally, since they aren't taking Gregg's barge, does that mean they are all hauling frozen spinach and motor mounts? Well, hardly.
Plenty of them carry hazmat too.
You see, the bridge, as noted here on March 7, is not, as you might expect, jointly owned by the two nations. They don't even have any say in running it. Instead, it is owned and operated by the minions of one man, a reclusive Grosse Pointe zillionaire named Manuel "Matty" Moroun.
He believes that he is a law unto himself, at least as far as the bridge is concerned. He doesn't allow either country to inspect it. He does what he wants. "He issues letters to those trucks he owns, and perhaps some others, saying they can take hazmat across," Ward said over lunch in Dearborn. Others have told me the same thing. "I get the leftovers — his competitors, maybe."
That may not be fair, but nobody in authority seems to be willing to challenge the man Forbes Magazine called "The troll under the bridge." (Full Story)
You may also want to review these posts:
- Design of "Harsens Island Crossing" presented
- Forbes profiled who's behind the Harsens Island Toll-Bridge proposal
- Promoter found unsuitable for gambling license is intimately involved in Homeland Security matters
- Proposed Harsens Island development much more than 'condos'
- Mike Malik's Lucky 7 could require special zoning for Harsens Island proposal
- Harsens Island developer has a history of fighting environmental concerns
- U.S. Attorney's inquiry leads to revelation Lucky 7 Development plans to drill sewer pipeline across St. Clair River
- Harsens Island developer is actually a lawyer with ties to environmentally challenged corporate interests & the Ilitch Family
- Harsens Island News - Key word "Harsens Island Bridge"
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