After nearly eight years of construction, the Gordie Howe International Bridge is now open to traffic. This new border crossing between the United States and Canada features a main span of 853 meters, making it the longest cable-stayed bridge in North America.

The bridge was designed with the involvement of several companies and organizations, including AECOM, the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, Bridging North America, Dragados, Fluor, and Aecon. It is named in honor of the famous Canadian hockey player Gordie Howe. The total length of the bridge is about 2.5 kilometers. It provides a direct connection between Highway 401 in Ontario and Interstate 75 in Michigan, allowing millions of trucks to cross the border each year.

Main construction features

• The roadway is situated approximately 42 meters above the Detroit River, and the bridge is 37 meters wide.
• The structure includes six traffic lanes, 16 toll lanes, and 60 inspection lanes on the Canadian and U.S. approaches.
• The bridge is supported by 216 cables, each made up of 38 to 122 steel strands.
• Construction of the two 220-meter-high towers required 4,500 tons of steel reinforcement and 10,000 cubic meters of concrete. The towers are anchored on piles drilled 36 meters deep into bedrock and filled with concrete.
• At night, the bridge is illuminated by more than 6,000 programmable white LEDs.

Construction and significance

Work on the bridge began in October 2018. The project involved 15,843 workers, with a total of 20.1 million labor hours invested. The bridge towers are among the tallest structures in the region.

The opening of the bridge comes at a time of complex relations between the United States and Canada. The U.S. did not send official representatives to the opening ceremony amid ongoing trade disputes and discussions about the timeline for sharing toll revenue.