WINDSOR, Canada (CBS DETROIT) – U.S. and Canadian leaders are celebrating a major milestone in the construction of the Gordie Howe International Bridge. With work completed to connect the deck between Windsor and Detroit, the span is now an official border crossing.
“Canada and the United States can do great things, we stand together. We do them together and we rise together,” Irek Kusmierczyk, a member of parliament from Windsor-Tecumseh, Ontario, said at a news conference Wednesday.
The span is now the longest cable-stayed bridge in North America since the two metalworkers shook hands on June 14 and connected the span.
Andrés Gutierrez/CBS Detroit
“They’re all so proud to be working on this project and to be a part of it. There were discussions about whether or not to do this job, you wanted this project,” said Ken Dombrow, president of Operating Engineers Local 324.
According to leaders, workers have worked about 13 million hours since construction began in the summer of 2018 on a connection that should ease traffic congestion for commercial traffic.
“This significant bottleneck and this connection carries about 30 percent of the freight traffic between our countries. So it’s a serious bottleneck. If we can make it move faster, it will benefit both countries’ economies,” Shailen Bhatt, U.S. federal highway administrator, told CBS News Detroit.
There is still a lot of work to be done in the coming months
Workers continue to pour concrete for the bridge’s Canadian and American approach bridges and install electrical, fire and drainage systems.
“Believe it or not, we are still hiring to complete the final pieces of the work,” said David Henderson, CEO of Bridging North America.
The bridge was originally scheduled for completion in November 2024, but the pandemic delayed construction. The completion date has been set for September 2025.
Andrés Gutierrez
