China is going to build the 2nd bridge

[BShea]

Jesus, I can't believe the ignorance of some of these posts. Snyder is ALLIGNED with the Democrats in building the scond bridge. Why in the name of Christ is the left bashing him for supporting the bridge. There is no China connection to the bridge. It's a concoction of the far right. Yet while fending off right-wing extremist, Snyder must contend with disaffected liberals who are so disconnected from reality they can't figure out that he is supporting an initiative -- the second bridge -- backed by every union in the state.

It's not entirely a concoction. The bridge is very likely to built by an infrastructure construction consortium from Spain, France, Australia or South Korea [[or their U.S. subsidiaries, using mostly U.S. workers).

China does invest in such projects, but perhaps not this one, from folks I've talked to.

Link

This isn't exactly news. Only a handful of companies in the world do P3 mega-infrastructure projects, and the largely foreign bids [[sought by MDOT last year for interest on the project) were from the usual suspects.

The likely scenario is that U.S. workers from U.S. companies [[including some from Michigan) will be subcontracted by the U.S. arm of a foreign infrastructure company will build NITC.

A good example is the Port of Miami Tunnel, one of the first big U.S. P3 projects. It was $1 billion, is owned by the state of Florida but was built by France's Bouygues S.A. [[which bid interest on DRIC/NITC).

And the veracity of Moroun's various claims aside, almost all of the firms bidding on DRIC/NITC doubt tolls will pay for it and want taxpayer-funded availability payment subsidies instead, which would act as a cover against any shortfall.

Canada is using availability payments on the Windsor-Essex Parkway, so it's very possible they'll be used for the bridge. It's largely a Canadian project, so what Ottawa prefers likely will be the financing method used, I'd guess. The key is ensuring the likely revenue shortfalls are on the backs of the bond underwriters and/or Canadian taxpayers.