LANSING – A report from an ad hoc Senate committee on the proposed Detroit River International Crossing will likely say the state should allow the study on the proposal to be completed, but then do nothing else on the proposal, sources have indicated.
Making a decision on a the DRIC is the last main element to the state finishing action on the 2008-09 Department of Transportation budget, and sources indicated that the GOP members of the ad hoc committee will urge quick action to complete the appropriations bill.
Since the ongoing federal/state study on a new bridge is drawing close to a conclusion, sources said that the committee will say that study should be completed.
But since officials from the Department of Transportation have said the Legislature would have to enact separate specific legislation in order for such a bridge to operate, that seems to satisfy GOP senators that lawmakers would still have a major say in whether a bridge is built and operated.
During hearings the ad hoc committee held last month, getting assurance from MDOT that the Legislature would have to approve a new bridge was critical to Sen. Alan Cropsey (R-DeWitt), the ad hoc chair.
Cropsey also questioned if the taxpayers should build a new bridge if the Detroit International Bridge Company, which owns the Ambassador Bridge, wants to build a second span next to the 80-year-old bridge. However, that plan has run into opposition with the Canadian government.
But there is apparently no reason not to allow the study to be completed, sources said.
That should allow the budget to be completed, as transportation officials are warning that unless the budget is completed soon they will have to begin shutting down road construction and maintenance projects now underway.
Sources also indicated the ad hoc report may be critical of MDOT, charging that officials have seemed unable to stick to a consistent line as to how the DRIC project would proceed.
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