Delayed Windsor-Detroit bridge to open in 2025

The Gordie Howe International Bridge project team has confirmed construction of the new cross-border span will be complete in September 2025.

The first vehicles are expected to travel across the bridge that fall.

Progress on the US port of entry facility at the new Gordie Howe International Bridge in September 2023. (Photo: Gordie Howe International Bridge)

Originally, the $5.7 billion project was scheduled for completion in November 2024, with opening anticipated by the end of that year.

However, the project was disrupted by the COVID-19 global pandemic. The disruptions were were felt particularly by the Gordie Howe International Bridge project given the differing applicable restrictions in the US and Canada, combined with the ramping up of construction activities in early 2020.

Beginning in March 2020 and over the remainder of the pandemic, various governments, including the governments of Ontario and the State of Michigan, issued hundreds of emergency and executive orders that applied to the Gordie Howe International Bridge project, and resulted in schedule and cost relief that is contemplated in the Project Agreement between WDBA and BNA.

“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, Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, in a statement.

“With safety as our top priority, we will continue to work together to deliver this much needed infrastructure to the thousands of eager travellers ready to cross North America’s longest cable-stayed bridge.”

Like most public-private partnerships (P3) contracts, the contract between Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority (WDBA) and Bridging North America (BNA) provides for the schedule and cost impacts of certain risks to be shared. As a result, WDBA and BNA have agreed to amend the contract to include the new September 2025 construction completion date, new measures to ensure this date is achieved, and an updated overall contract value of $6.4 billion.

Recognizing that an extended construction period impacts the project host communities, WDBA has budgeted for a one-year extension of the Gordie Howe International Bridge Community Benefits Plan. With $3 million to be divided equally between Canada and the US and expended over the 2025-2026 fiscal year, residents and business owners in Sandwich/west Windsor and Delray/Southwest Detroit will see positive outcomes from further regional investments.

The project team said additional details on the approach to allocating this funding will be shared later in 2024.