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On Aug. 7, U.S. and Canadian union officials, and Detroit River Tunnel Partnership representatives reached an agreement to use union laborers to build the $600 million Jobs Tunnel connecting Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.

"According to the Binational Study Group, there are over 84,000
manufacturing jobs in southeast Michigan and southwest Ontario at risk if we don't take aggressive and timely action to relieve the current truck congestion at the Detroit-Windsor border crossing — the Jobs Tunnel will do that, and it can be up and running in only five years," said Jobs Tunnel Chief Executive Officer Michael Sheahan in a prepared statement. "That's why this is so important not only to our friends in organized labor, but … to many more on both sides of the border."

A joint venture between Canadian Pacific Railway and Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System subsidiary Borealis Transportation Infrastructure Trust, Detroit River Tunnel Partnership plans to build a new larger rail tunnel next to an existing twin-tube rail tunnel between Windsor's Highway 401 and Detroit's Interstate 75.

Once complete, the partnership will convert existing tunnels to 28-lane roadways designed for truck-only use to relieve traffic congestion. Each year, more than 3.5 million trucks cross the Ambassador Bridge — which has only one lane dedicated to truck traffic — between Detroit and Windsor.