Land sale may complicate plans for the bridge [[DRIC)

[Gistok]

Lost the war? Outmanuevered? It looks to me as though he just landed a knockout punch on the DRIC. If I'm not mistaken, M-DOT has to fight this with state money. The Feds can't get involved. What is M-DOT going to fight with? A lack of non matching funds?

No matter how anyone feels about Matty. He's showing the smarts that made him a self-made billionaire. He outmanuevered the City, State, Feds and Canada on this one. He may not get his new span, but, he's put a stop to the DRIC.

I have to concur... and with MDOT not even being able to do fix all of the state roadway infrastructure that is already falling apart [[due to lack of funds)... where are they going to get the money for the new bridge, let alone the legal fight that Matty will protract??

In a game of Chess between Matty and MDOT... Matty just did a "Check".

[Detroitnerd]

The old game of privatize the profit, socialize the loss. The government [[us) has to build the roads, the trucking companies [[Matty?) get to run very heavy freight over them, destroying them year after year. The government [[us) has to rebuild them at tremendous cost. Meanwhile, the money-making bridge gets held privately [[Matty?), and the justification for not building public [[us) competition to Matty is squelched because of the government's [[our) road-paving responsibilities. Check. Checkmate.

[BShea]

Phil Frame explains the business case for the land purchase and says the DRIC implications are a side benefit.

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/shea

[kraig]

DetroitNerd and BShea. Your links actually complement each other very well. Thanks, that was good stuff.