Gordie Howe International Bridge now expected to be completed in Sept. 2025
The opening of a new international bridge connecting the U.S. and Canada is going to take nearly a year longer, with a completion date now set for September 2025.
The Gordie Howe International Bridge, which began construction in fall 2018, was originally planned to be completed in November 2024 but was delayed due to complications of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Until now, there was only speculation whether the bridge's completion might be pushed back into 2025, but the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority and Bridging North America finally confirmed the bridge's delayed schedule on Thursday.
“Throughout the pandemic, BNA made progress on the project by keeping people working while also keeping them safe. We were able to do so by resequencing construction activities in a manner that aligned with provincial and state health and safety orders and directives and our own rigorous safety protocols," said David Henderson, Interim CEO of Bridging North America. "Through the great progress made in 2023 and collaboration with WDBA, MDOT, and all our project partners, we are happy to have minimized the impacts of the pandemic.”
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In 2022 and 2023, the project team was able to make significant progress on the bridge and road deck construction, stay cable installation, and port of entry facilities, said the Bridge Authority in a news release. In 2024, the team expects to connect the bridge deck over the Detroit River, install the last of the 216 stay cables, and complete the POE agency buildings as well as the concrete for the connecting Interstate 75 ramps before finishing the bridge and conducting operational tests in 2025.
The Bridge Authority and Bridging North America updated their contract for the Gordie Howe International Bridge, originally valued at $5.7 billion CDN or just under $4.3 billion USD, to reflect the official change in the completion timeline and note the contract's increase in value to $6.4 billion CDN or about $4.8 billion USD.
Additionally, understanding that extended construction periods impact a project's host communities, the Bridge Authority has budgeted to extend the Gordie Howe International Bridge Community Benefits Plan by one year by the new completion schedule. The plan will split $3 million (CDN) equally between Detroit and Windsor, providing further regional investments to benefit residents and business owners in the two cities. Additional details regarding the approach to allocating this funding will be released later this year.
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“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 Charl van Niekerk, CEO of the Bridge Authority. "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.”
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Gordie Howe International Bridge now expected to be done Sept. 2025
