I'm with you Hermod, we should be spending what litte dough we have on fixing the crumbling road and bridge Infrastructure. But we are broke. It's tough paying for roads if you have no cash; however, the Feds do have a program where if the State will poney up 25% they will cover the other 75%. I may have the percentages wrong but the idea is for the local government to show their commitment by putting some skin in the game

That's a great deal, but if you are broke as swayback nag you ain't no way, no how gonna find 25% in the couch cushions. You ain't finding nothin but lint in your pockets, nothing but air in the cookie jar, nothing but nothing is nothing.

Impossible.

Except.

Snyder has found a way for Michigan to get $2.2 billion in road infrastructure money by applying our half of the NITC, read $550 million, to work as our skin in the game. Oh, and that $550 is being fronted by our neighbors.

Sounds like a sweet deal. For some maybe too sweet. Too much of a 3-card Monty sure bet.

If you are part of the too-good-to-be-true set, I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree; but I don't see you as an out of hand skeptic. Just cautious. That is wise. As Ron Regan said, "trust but verify".

On your question regarding whether a new bridge is even needed, I would defer to a bridge expert, as I am not one myself. I'm not even an engineer like you. I'm a shmoe.

So where am I going to find a bridge expert? Especially one who knows everything there is to know about the Ambassador. Since the DIBC won't allow Federal bridge inspectors on the Ambassador, that is a tough order. Hmm.

Oh, I got it! How silly I didn't think of Matty himself. Perfect. He owns the Ambassador, presumably he knows the ambassador, and more than likely has had real life structural engineers all over the Ambassador.

Matty, our resident expert, sez "we need a new bridge".

So, to wrap up. Canada is giving us $550million and we are turning that into $2.2 billion to re-build other roads in our State and the foremost authority on bridges sez we need a new bridge.

I wish I could provide you the links to support the above claims, but I'm working on one of those I-thingies and cutting and pasteing is beyond my skill level; but you are smart guy, you can find them for yourself including the documents between neighbors.