Rep. Cushingberry offered the following concurrent resolution:

            House Concurrent Resolution No. 11.

            A concurrent resolution to support the plan of the Detroit International Bridge Company to establish an enhancement span to the Ambassador Bridge and to urge the Michigan Strategic Fund and U.S. and Canadian authorities to take certain actions regarding this project.

            Whereas, The Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor exemplifies efficiency and solid security practices that a private and public partnership can provide to the citizens of Michigan, the United States, and Canada and has been recognized by the United States Federal Highway Administration as the most efficient international crossing; and

            Whereas, The Detroit International Bridge Company (DIBC) crossing plan to develop an enhancement span of the Ambassador Bridge would provide for an additional crossing between the cities of Detroit and Windsor as anticipated by the Gateway Project to efficiently meet the traffic needs of the region for years to come; and

            Whereas, The DIBC will work with the state of Michigan to leverage the private investment used in the creation of an enhancement span to help garner $2 billion in federal matching funds to be used to improve Michigan’s roads and bridges by qualifying DIBC expenditures as toll credits under federal law; and

            Whereas, The Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC) study, being carried out by the Michigan Department of Transportation, the U.S. Federal Highway Administration, Transport Canada, and the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, documents the need for an additional span, and continues to study alternate sites for a new bridge, while private investors are willing to build the Ambassador Bridge enhancement span without expense to the taxpayer; and

            Whereas, The state of Michigan has made a significant investment to improve the traffic flow to the current Ambassador Bridge through initiatives such as the Gateway Project to address traffic flow from the freeway and interstates to the Ambassador Bridge and accommodate a second span at that location to facilitate international commerce; and

            Whereas, The Ambassador Bridge has upgraded the Customs inspection facilitations and plazas in both Detroit and Windsor, more than doubling the number of commercial inspection booths; and

            Whereas, The Michigan Strategic Fund has previously approved an inducement resolution for Phase I – Ambassador Bridge private activity bond funding for $212 million in December 2007 and will consider Phase II approval for $787 million; and

            Whereas, Constriction of the Ambassador Bridge enhancement span project will create nearly 4,000 jobs during construction and support 20,000 jobs over the next 2 decades; now, therefore, be it

            Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That we support the plan of the Detroit International Bridge Company to establish an enhancement span to the Ambassador Bridge; and be it further

            Resolved, That we urge the Michigan Strategic Fund to immediately approve an Inducement Resolution for Phase II Private Activity Bonds for the DIBC enhancement span and Gateway connections to the Ambassador Bridge; and be it further

            Resolved, That we urge both the United States and Canadian governments to expedite the necessary actions to complete the DIBC enhancement span to allow for the second crossing to become operational in a timely fashion; and be it further

            Resolved, That we urge that the DRIC study conclude after completion of its Record of Decisions with no further activity until border traffic in the corridor reverses its decade-long decline and returns to previous 1999 levels; and be it further

            Resolved, That we recommend that the Canadian government finish the improvements to alleviate traffic flow concerns in Windsor from Canadian Highway 401 to the Ambassador Bridge; and be it further

            Resolved, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the members of the Michigan congressional delegation, the Prime Minister of Canada, the Ontario Parliamentary delegation, the Mayor of Detroit, and the Mayor of Windsor.