Officials delay opening of Gordie Howe International Bridge after ‘unprecedented disruptions’

Truckers looking forward to using an upcoming northern border crossing will have to wait a little longer.

On Friday, Jan. 5, the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority announced the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge would be delayed about 10 months. Citing “unprecedented disruptions as a result of the COVID-19 global pandemic,” officials said the new completion date is planned for September 2025.

“This new timeline is achievable without compromising quality and, most importantly, the health and safety of our workers,” the authority said in a statement.

The bridge authority said the pandemic was particularly disruptive to the cross-border project “given the differing applicable restrictions in the U.S. and Canada, combined with the ramping up of construction activities in early 2020.”

The $5.7 billion Canadian dollar ($4.26 billion) project – which is a public-private partnership between Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority and Bridging North America – was originally expected to be completed by November of this year. With the delays in construction, the new estimated cost of the project is CA$6.4 billion or $4.79 billion.

“After a three-year pandemic and considering the size and complexity of the Gordie Howe International Bridge project, our project team is pleased that the impact to the construction schedule is limited to only 10 months beyond the original contracted completion date and that we could agree on a reasonable adjustment to the contract value,” said Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority CEO Charl van Niekerk. “With safety as our top priority, we will continue to work together to deliver this much-needed infrastructure to the thousands of eager travelers ready to cross North America’s longest cable-stayed bridge.”

Construction on the bridge began in July 2018. Once complete, the international border crossing will connect Detroit and Windsor by linking I-75 in Michigan with Highway 401 in Ontario.

There are currently three connections between the two:

• The Ambassador Bridge
• The Detroit-Windsor Tunnel
• The Blue Water Bridge

According to bridge authority, the new cross-border connection is “unique in that it will provide a highway-to-highway connection” between the two locations. Currently, the other three connections join with city streets on the Ontario side.

The bridge is named after hockey great Gordie Howe. Known as “Mr. Hockey,” his career spanned over three decades – with 25 of those years spent playing for the Detroit Red Wings. Howe died two years before construction on the bridge began. LL