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Dive Brief:
- The C$6.4 billion ($4.68 billion) Gordie Howe International Bridge between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, is now connected, the builders announced on July 9. The installation of the final part of the bridge deck is a key milestone for the Windsor-Detroit border crossing, the busiest land border crossing in North America.
- Ironworkers and operating engineers celebrated with a handshake between union locals from the two nations as part of a completion ceremony, according to a news release from Toronto-based contractor Aecon.
- The rest of the work on the bridge includes stress cables; installation of electrical, fire extinguishing and drainage systems; add barriers, signage, lighting, roof paving and pavement markings; and complete a multi-use trail, according to the project’s website.
Diving knowledge:
Bridging North America, a consortium of Irving, Texas-based Fluor, ACS Infrastructure and Madrid-based 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 progressed toward each other over the following months. By the end of May, the last concrete slabs had been installed for the Canadian and American sides, and the remaining distance to connect the bridge deck had been reduced to about 36 feet.
The toolmakers and operating engineers then embarked on a painstaking process lasting several weeks to install the final segment, which involved taking the Canadian side of the bridge deck about 6 inches and using temporary bracing pieces to keep the structure in line before fitting the steel edge beams and other components of closure, according to the project’s website. The midpoint closure is custom designed to fit the gap, unlike the other 54 pre-engineered segments that make up the bridge deck.
“Building the deck of the bridge segment by segment is a marathon of construction cycles and is very intensive,” said Jaime Castro-Maier, lead engineer of Aecon’s construction team. “At the end point, we were just millimeters away from where we expected to be. When you look at the magnitude of this construction site and the size of the bridge deck, talking millimeters was very rewarding.”
Construction is occurring concurrently on the other three elements of the project, the Canadian and US ports of entry and the Michigan Interchange, including:
- Interior work in all Canadian port of entry buildings including window fittings, heating and cooling, electrical, plumbing and flooring.
- Interior work on more than half of US port of entry buildings.
- Placing beams on the I-75 ramps leading to the US port of entry.
The the bridge is still on its way to close in fall 2025, according to a May post on the project’s website. The project began in 2019 and was originally scheduled to be completed in 2024, but officials said the project was delayed due to issues related to COVID-19.
Once complete, the Gordie Howe Bridge will be the longest cable-stayed bridge in North America.
