Making connections and building bridges: improving the bi-national planning process

ABSTRACT

Creating a continental transportation system that supports the efficient movement of goods between Canada and the United States is essential to the economies of both countries. However, 25 years after the passage of the Canada–US Free Trade Act and many agreements and accords later, poor connectivity, congestion and delays still plague many transborder corridors. Recent attempts to improve this situation involving several proposed new bridge projects have either been halted or significantly delayed over the last decade. This paper will review and critically examine the bi-national planning process that has been followed in an attempt to build a new bridge across the Detroit River, known as the Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC) project.

KEYWORDS:

• Canada–US border
• bi-national planning
• bridge

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Funding

The author gratefully acknowledges the Government of Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, through their Canadian Studies Program, who funded this research.

Notes

1. In the US the Customs Service was shifted from the Treasury Department and merged with the Justice Department's Immigration and Naturalization Service to create the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency within the newly established Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In Canada, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) was created out of Canada Customs, Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and administratively located with Public Safety Canada.

2. The European Investment Fund (EIF) provides support/investment funds for medium and long-term transportation infrastructure projects. The EIF involves a unique partnership between the European Investment Bank and the European Union Commission in cooperation with banks and institutions of member states (Banister, Gerardin, and Viegas 1998). As a means to attract private sector money, the EIF is restricted to providing no more than 50% of the cost of any particular project.