Howe Bridge CEO ousted from job

Stunning move comes just after Ottawa OKs new Moroun span

Michael Cautillo, CEO of the government body assigned to oversee construction of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, is no longer on the job, sources confirmed on Tuesday.

It is the latest unexpected twist in the efforts to build a new international crossing over the Detroit River.

Cautillo was informed last week by Dwight Duncan, board chairman for the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, that he was no longer at the helm, sources say.

No replacement has been named.

Duncan did not respond to messages left by the Star.

High-ranking authority staff members were concerned about the pace at which the final bidding stage of the bridge project was proceeding under Cautillo, which lead Duncan and the board to make the decision to remove Cautillo as CEO, sources close to the project said. A bridge authority spokesman would only say Cautillo remained an employee on Tuesday.

He referred all questions to officials in Ottawa, given that Cautillo was hired and is employed by the Canadian government.

There was no immediate response from the offices of federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau and Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi.

The news of Cautillo’s removal comes in the wake of the Canadian government’s surprising decision last week to grant Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Moroun a permit to build a new private span to replace his current 87-year-old crossing.

Moroun is to complete a new six-lane crossing within the next five years just to the west of his current bridge, according to the government permit — regarded as the last major hurdle to launching construction.

The federal cabinet’s decision to grant the permit to the privately owned Ambassador Bridge surprised communities in Windsor and Detroit, given that Moroun has filed countless lawsuits over the past decade to stop the publicly financed Howe bridge.

Cautillo’s removal as CEO of the bridge authority was also unexpected.

“It’s shocking news,” said local MP Brian Masse (NDP — Windsor West).

“(Cautillo) was one of the more steady hands in the process for the new crossing. Now he is being removed.

“Given the latest developments, I can only imagine morale at (the bridge authority) is lower than the Edmund Fitzgerald. At this point, leadership on the project is needed more than ever.”

Masse believes the Howe bridge project’s troubles are connected to the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau taking it over.

“That’s when you start seeing the trouble,” he said. “That has been the largest disrupter. Now we have uneasiness about the public crossing and this adds another complication to that.”

Cautillo, a civil engineer from Toronto, came to Windsor in July 2014 to establish the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority as its first employee. He was named to the job by Lisa Raitt, then transport minister under Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He has been the face of the Howe bridge project and helped create the support team to get it off the ground.

But the authority has been criticized for repeated delays of the final bidding stage to secure a contractor to build the bridge.

The original timetable under the Harper government was to have a contractor in place by the end of 2016 and bridge construction completed by 2020.

A few weeks ago, Cautillo and the bridge authority announced completion has been pushed back to at least 2023.

The three consortiums vying to build Howe bridge were informed their detailed bids will not be required until next year and that a contractor will likely be chosen in late 2018 — two years later than originally planned.

Several more months into 2019 will be needed for a fairness monitor to verify the process was carried out properly and to negotiate a final contract with the winning bidder.

Workers will have to be hired before construction can start. It is estimated construction will take at least 42 months.

An estimated $200 million has already been spent on preparing land around the project, including the plaza site on the Canadian side in Brighton Beach, and to acquire roughly 70 per cent of required properties on the Detroit side in the industrial community of Delray.

“We would like to know there will be continuity in leadership to keep this project moving forward,” said Gregg Ward, a member of the Howe bridge project’s community advisory group in Detroit when informed Cautillo was removed as CEO.

Cautillo could not be reached for comment Tuesday.