Dive Brief:
- The 6.4 billion Canadian dollar ($4.68 billion) Gordie Howe International Bridge between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit is now connected, builders announced on July 9. Installation of the final piece of bridge deck is a key milestone for the Windsor-Detroit border crossing, the busiest land border junction in North America.
- Ironworkers and operating engineers celebrated with a handshake between the two nations’ union locals as part of a topping out ceremony, according to a press release from Toronto-based contractor Aecon.
- Remaining bridge work includes stressing stay cables; installing electrical, fire suppression and drainage systems; adding barriers, signage, lighting, deck paving and pavement markings; and completing a multi-use path, per the project website.
Dive Insight:
Bridging North America, a consortium of Irving, Texas-based Fluor, Madrid-headquartered ACS Infrastructure and Aecon, is building the span through a public-private partnership with the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority.
Construction of the bridge deck began in December 2022 on opposite banks of the Detroit River, which advanced toward each other over the following months. By the end of May, the last concrete slabs for the Canadian and U.S. sides had been installed, and the remaining distance to connect the bridge deck had shrunk to about 36 feet.
Ironworkers and operating engineers then embarked on a meticulous, multi-week process to install the final segment, which entailed jacking the Canadian side of the bridge deck about 6 inches and using temporary bracing pieces to hold the structure in alignment before fitting the steel edge girders and the other components of the closure, according to the project website. The mid-span closure is custom built to fit the gap, unlike the other 54 pre-designed segments that make up the bridge deck.
“Building the bridge deck segment by segment is a marathon of construction cycles and is very intensive,” said Jaime Castro-Maier, lead engineer for Aecon’s construction team. “At the final point, we were within a few millimeters of where we were expecting to be. If you look at the magnitude of this construction site and the size of the bridge deck — to talk about millimeters was very rewarding.”
Construction is happening concurrently on the other three elements of the project, the Canadian and U.S. ports of entry and the Michigan Interchange, including:
- Interior work on all buildings within the Canadian port of entry including window fixtures, heating and cooling, electrical, plumbing and flooring.
- Interior work on more than half of the buildings at the U.S. port of entry.
- Placement of girders on the ramps over I-75 leading to the U.S. port of entry.
The bridge remains on track to wrap by fall 2025, according to a May post on the project website. The project began in 2019 and was originally slated to be finished in 2024, but officials said the project was delayed by COVID-19-related issues.
Once complete, the Gordie Howe Bridge will be the longest cable-stayed bridge in North America.
