January 7, 2010


Land sale may complicate plans for bridge
By JOHN GALLAGHER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
Ambassador Bridge owner Manuel [[Matty) Moroun has acquired a big parcel of land in southwest Detroit in a move that could complicate plans to build a rival bridge project there.

Moroun’s Central Transport has purchased the former Yellow Freight truck terminal at 7701 W. Jefferson, Moroun spokesman Phil Frame said today.

The site covers 42 acres and includes 185 loading bays. Moroun bought the land for an undisclosed price from YRC Worldwide, a company formed by the recent combination of Yellow Freight with the Roadway trucking company.

The approach ramps for the planned Detroit River International Crossing bridge project between Windsor and Detroit would cross one corner of the parcel. DRIC is a joint project by the governments of Michigan, Ontario, the United States and Canada to build a new publicly owned bridge from Detroit’s Delray district to Windsor.

Moroun bitterly opposes the DRIC plans because it would siphon traffic and toll revenue away from his bridge. With Moroun now owning the Yellow Freight land, the DRIC coalition would have to resort to a government taking of the property, or at least the corner of it. That could lead to a court fight.

Bill Shreck, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Transportation, said Moroun’s purchase of the parcel shouldn’t hold up plans for DRIC. Noting that governments have the right to seize property for public uses under eminent domain, he said the only fight would be over how much the state had to pay for it.

Frame said Moroun plans to move trucking operations into the Yellow Freight site beginning Friday, transferring operations from a smaller facility in Romulus. Initially about 100 workers will transfer to the southwest Detroit site, but ultimately hundreds more could make the move.
Moroun is best known for owning the Ambassador Bridge, but his business includes a network of trucking companies that is among the largest in the U.S. The Yellow Freight site is ideal for those operations, Frame said.
“There is a tremendous business case for doing this,” Frame said. “It wasn’t DRIC that drove us to do this. The facility was perfect for Central Transport’s business.”