This is gonna get ugly.

MDOT sues bridge firm over 'illegal' facilities in Ambassador Bridge project

Tom Greenwood / The Detroit News

MDOT filed a lawsuit Wednesday afternoon demanding that the Detroit International Bridge Co. be required to tear out numerous facilities it has "illegally" installed near the span as its part of the Ambassador Bridge Gateway project.

The disputed facilities include custom booths, filling stations for cars and trucks as well as a duty free shop. If required to do so, the removal of the structures could cost the DIBC tens of millions of dollars.
According to MDOT, the DIBC breached its contract by making changes to the original construction plan without consulting the state agency, including:
• The illegal confiscation of 23rd Street running north from Fort Street.
• Failure to build an elevated roadway over 23rd Street which would have given the public access to 23rd Street.
• Failure to build a two-lane road leading to the land-locked Lafayette Bait Shop at Lafayette and 23rd.
• Failure to build a two-lane truck road and the construction of Pier 19.
• Failure to reimburse MDOT $500,000 the state spent to acquire property needed by the DIBC for its portion of the Gateway Project.
"When we ask them what they were doing they told us not to worry, that they were building on their own property. We asked for plans and they only sent partial prints."
Kratofil said the DIBC built their facilities on property owned by Detroit, and then asked the city to vacate that property. The issue went before the Detroit City Council and they said "no."