Ambassador Bridge security reviewed after Maryland bridge collapse, owner says

The Ambassador Bridge's owner is reevaluating its security after a Maryland span collapsed when it was struck by a cargo ship last month, the company's chairman said Friday.

"We are reevaluating everything from top to bottom," said Matt Moroun, head of the Detroit International Bridge Company, which owns the Ambassador Bridge. "The Key Bridge is a wake-up call."

Moroun made the remarks during the Michigan Chronicle's Pancakes & Politics Speakers' Forum. He was on a panel discussing "Big Projects, Big Future" in Detroit.

Joi Harris, president and COO of DTE Energy, and Ryan Maibach, president and CEO of construction contractor Barton Malow, joined Moroun on the panel.

The 7:30 a.m. event was held on the 16th floor of the 1 Campus Martius building in downtown Detroit. It was also livestreamed by WDIV-TV (Channel 4).

Moroun said the Ambassador Bridge, like most crossings, faces threats from the water and land.

"I'm not going to say that everything is fine and we don't need to look at it," he said. "I read an article in one of the two major papers that 20 freighters a year lose steering at some point in their voyages."

The Detroit News reported March 28 that freighters, tankers and cargo ships on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway lost propulsion, steering or electrical power 263 times between 2012 and May 2022 and crashed with stationary objects on the waterways more than 60 times over that same decade. The annual average of 20 incidents of lost steering capabilities was based on federal safety data obtained through a public records request and analyzed by The News.

He also mentioned the blockade on the Windsor side of the bridge in 2022 started by truckers protesting Canada's COVID-19 restrictions and a vaccine mandate. It reopened after seven days.

The bridge company is going through a review, Moroun said.

"There are new threats and we need to respond and take precautions in new ways," he said. "We're working with Customs and Border Patrol and Canada's Border Services as well as Homeland Security. They're asking for and working with us to develop new plans."

Moroun is the only son of Manuel "Matty" Moroun, who died in 2020 of congestive heart failure. His family company owns the Ambassador Bridge, the Warren-based trucking firm Central Transport and Crown Enterprises Inc., real estate development and management firm, among other business holdings.

The younger Moroun's dealings have been at the forefront of Detroit's revitalization outside the downtown core. In 2018, he sold the Michigan Central Depot to the Ford Motor Co. for $90 million. The Dearborn automaker is turning the former train station, which sat vacant and deteriorating after closing in 1988, into its electric car and self-driving campus in Corktown. The Morouns acquired the property in 1992.

Panelists at Friday's event also talked about real estate development in Detroit, attracting workers, immigration, and diversity.

cramirez@detroitnews.com

X: @CharlesERamirez