http://www.freep.com/article/2010120...in-MDOT-battle

A lawyer for Manuel [[Matty) Moroun's Detroit International Bridge Co. said today that the holdout owner of a bait shop near the Ambassador Bridge sold the property to Moroun's Ambassador Bridge company.



What impact the sale of the property would have on an ongoing dispute between the bridge company and the Michigan Department of Transportation wasn't immediately clear. Moroun lawyer Craig John and officials from MDOT declined to comment this afternoon.



John mentioned the sale during proceedings this morning before Wayne County Circuit Judge Prentis Edwards. The bridge company was ordered to explain to Edwards today why the company shouldn't be held in contempt of court for not following MDOT's designs for ramps and roadways directly connecting the bridge to the freeways as part of the state's $230 million Gateway Project to revamp freeways and their access to the Ambassador. The case resumes this afternoon before Edwards.



The issue of 23rd Street has been a sticking point, because it's the only road to get to the bait shop. MDOT had said that maintaining access to that shop required Moroun's company to build bridges over 23rd Street so truck and passenger traffic could get to the Ambassador in a newly designed bridge plaza.

John said the DIBC now owns all property along that segment of 23rd Street, make the issue of building the bridges moot.



The former bait shop owner could not be reached immediately for comment this afternoon.



The bridge company has twice appealed to federal courts but lost, and again today asserted that Edwards doesn't have the jurisdiction to enforce the matter.

MDOT in recent years rebuilt sections of Fort Street, I-96 and I-75 near the bridge and wants new ramps and roads to connect traffic directly between the bridge and freeways, without running vehicles onto local streets.



The bridge company built the ramps but changed the designs to accommodate a new duty-free store and, MDOT says, to allow for a twin bridge adjacent to the Ambassador.



The issue before Edwards won't determine the outcome of the proposed Detroit River International Crossing, a second bridge between Detroit and Windsor that MDOT and the Canadian government want built about two miles south of the Ambassador. The state Senate did not take up legislation on the DRIC, which Moroun bitterly opposes, before it adjourned for the year.