Axios Detroit
July 16, 2026
Annalise Frank
What they’re saying: “Here we are now, and I feel like there’s been a bit of a pressure relief valve,” Glenn Stevens Jr., executive director of MichAuto, tells Axios.
“I think now there’s really a feeling of optimism and that spirit of cooperation, I feel, has kind of emerged again.”
Context: Companies transporting goods between Detroit and Canada will benefit from the bridge easing friction at what’s considered North America’s busiest commercial border crossing.
Wayne State professor Michael Belzer, who studied cross-border freight infrastructure for decades, says the region’s economy depends on a complex, integrated freight transportation system — and the cost of delaying additional crossing capacity is enormous.
Case in point: Companies will waste less time waiting in congestion, get easier freeway access on the Canadian side, move their products more predictably, use improved border technology and security, and move through an increased number of lanes (six) compared with the existing Ambassador Bridge (four), Stevens says.