Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI) voiced her frustration following the Canadian government’s Wednesday announcement that it is planning to finance construction of a U.S. Customs plaza at the new Detroit River Bridge, noting that a 2011 promise to her constituency to build a similar plaza at the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron, Michigan has never been fulfilled.
“When President Obama and Canadian Prime Minister (Stephen) Harper signed the Beyond the Border Agreement in 2011, I called it ‘a great new day for the Blue Water Bridge,’ because the agreement singled out the Blue Water Bridge plaza project as a priority to be addressed and funded by the U.S. government,” Miller said.
The vice chair of the House Homeland Security Committee lamented that after over a decade of planning, condemnation of private lands – which reduced the tax base of the city of Port Huron – and other serious disruptions, progress was to finally be made with the long-overdue plaza project.
“Now, nearly four years after that agreement was signed and over a decade since the project started, over 50 acres of land has been razed and the people of Port Huron are still waiting for the allocation of needed funding or innovative ideas to make this promised plaza happen,” Miller said.
Miller noted the only progress that has been displayed since the 2011 promise has been the use of stacked temporary booths on the American side of the bridge. “These booths have reduced some of the congestion,” she said, “but they were never meant to be a long-term solution.”
Last year, Miller penned letters to both Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder in which she inquired about the use of a public-private-partnership (P3) as a possible solution to provide funding for the Blue Water Bridge plaza to begin. Miller said the letters did not generate a response.
“So it was more than a bit frustrating when I read today that a P3 would be used to fund the construction of a new bridge over the Detroit River, including the Customs plaza on the American side of the still-nonexistent bridge, while we still have no forward movement at the Blue Water Bridge,” she said. “Over a decade is too long for the people of Port Huron to wait for a solution. In 2011, President Obama made a commitment to Port Huron and the Blue Water Bridge in the Beyond the Border Agreement, and that commitment is still unfulfilled. If a P3 is good enough for a bridge that does not exist in Detroit, then a similar action should be taken to finish the job in Port Huron. I once again call upon this Administration to act.”