[music]
>> NARRATOR: There’s a new energy in Detroit
that’s pulsing through its communities and drawing in visitors from around the country and the world.
In recent years, the Super Bowl,
baseball’s All-Star Game and World Series
and the Detroit Mexicantown International Welcome Center in Mercado
have put Detroit on the global stage
and reflected the shared vision of connecting neighbors and economies.
To strengthen that connection, the Michigan Department of Transportation,
residents, stakeholders and community leaders are teaming up
to improve the international gateway into Michigan, the region and Detroit.
23 percent of all surface trade between the U.S. and Canada crosses between Detroit and Canada.
The Ambassador Bridge has carried much of the trade into Michigan since it opened in 1929
and it serves as the number one commercial crossing.
More than 11 million vehicles a year cross the bridge, including 30 percent commercial vehicles:
10,000 trucks cross each day.
That volume has lead to traffic congestion and trucks on adjacent city streets
and a closer look by MDOT engineers at the outdated configuration of the freeway system near the bridge
shows the need to: provide a direct connection from the Ambassador Bridge to the freeways,
provide access to the new Welcome Center,
and reconstruct the I-96/I-75 mainlines.
Since 1995, MDOT and a steering committee of community and governmental entities
have been studying, planning upgrades to the Gateway and securing federal environmental approvals,
and local development and implementation agreements.
With the help of communities during public meetings, the steering committee developed a phased approach
to provide for the free flow of traffic, provide additional security,
and bring the border crossing up to today’s technologies and regulations.
The vision of connecting country-to-country and neighborhood-to-neighborhood with better traffic flow and access,
is becoming a reality.
The first three phases are already complete and the final $170 million construction phases are under way.
All roads are expected to be open to traffic by December 2009
and the full project complete in 2010.
The two-year construction will be staged
so that residents and visitors can still access Mexicantown, downtown Detroit
and the Ambassador Bridge throughout the process.
Once complete, Detroit will have a new Bagley Avenue pedestrian bridge
to connect east and west Mexicantown;
reconstructed roadways and bridges on I-75 from Clark Street to 14th Street;
reconstructed roadway and bridges on I-96 from Interstate 75 to Warren Avenue;
new ramps between the Ambassador Bridge and the local areas;
and extensive landscaping throughout the corridor.
During this final stage of construction, a portion of I-75 will be closed to traffic
in order to shave two years off of the entire project.
However, access to the Ambassador Bridge and local streets will be maintained.
MDOT has mapped out alternative routes and will keep the traveling public informed with roadway signs,
detailed brochures and the MDOT project Web site
located at www.michigan.gov/gateway.
The Michigan Department of Transportation thanks you for your participation and patience
during the Ambassador Bridge Gateway project and looks forward to a future of reenergized regional growth
and better connected neighborhoods and economies.
[music]