This audio is automatically generated. Please let us know if you have any comments.
Dive brief:
- The Gordie Howe Bridge project has advanced its end date and increased its cost by C$700 million ($523.6 million), according to a Jan. 4 news release from the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority.
- According to the statement, officials blamed the delay on problems that arose with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of the original timeline of November 2024, construction of the new section that will connect Windsor, Ontario, to Detroit will be completed in September 2025 with a new price tag of $6.4 billion.
- However, the news of the setback was not surprising: by 2022, an S&P analysis predicted that the bridge would likely be won’t open until August 2025nine months after your initial target date.
Diving knowledge:
WDBA and builder Bridging North America, a consortium of Irving, Texas-based Fluor, Madrid-based ACS Infrastructure and Toronto-based Aecon, jointly agreed to extend the timeline and cost, according to the release. The two entities are delivering the bridge as a public-private partnership.
Charl van Niekerk, director general of the bridge authority, said the construction team was pleased to have only incurred a 10-month delay, given the size and complexity of the project and the huge impacts that the pandemic had on construction, according to the statement. When completed, the bridge will help one of the busiest land crossings between the two countries.
In addition, the problems were compounded by the bridge’s status as an international project, which meant the construction team had to play with two different sets of restrictions, from both the US and Canada, according to the statement
“With safety as our top priority, we will continue to work together to provide this much-needed infrastructure to the thousands of travelers eager to cross North America’s longest cable-stayed bridge,” van Niekerk said in the statement.
The project, which construction began in 2019, has also dealt with unrelated issues that have hampered construction efforts. Last summer, a 100-foot-long stretch of road collapsed inwardsand forced the project to stop for 18 days.
In an environment that has benefited from the $1.2 trillion Jobs and Infrastructure Investment Act, public projects have generally been able to maintain momentum. Private projects driven by developershowever, they are experiencing difficulties as capital markets dry up and credit lines become tighter.
