20 years in the making, the Gordie Howe International Bridge is set to open in early 2026, providing the first new link between the US and Canada in many years.
The impressive bridge with its graceful bending approaches is reminiscent of the signature ambidexterity of its namesake Howe, often considered the most complete hockey player to ever live, who could shoot both left and right-handed.
The bridge also enters a very narrow company of riverine crossing points that are open to cyclists and pedestrians.
“People didn’t want us to lose a unique opportunity to design a new international crossing without considering the incorporation of a multiuse path for pedestrians and cyclists,” said Heather Grondin, chief relations officer for the Gordie Howe International Bridge.
Linking the cities of Windsor, Ontario, with Detroit, GNN last reported on the bridge in 2024, when the span was missing exactly the length of a regulation NHL hockey rink—pertinent.
It will have the longest steel and concrete composite deck for any cable-stayed bridge in the world, Engineering News Record reported at the time, and will feature 6 lanes of traffic, three in each direction, with overflow parking zones located in the ports of entry to ease congestion across the bridge.
Congestion was a big consideration when designing the project, as the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel have been afflicted by routine slowdowns for years.
“This bridge, along with the adjacent infrastructure, will connect directly from Interstate 75 to the Ontario highway system, known as Highway 401, without trucks or cars having to stop at traffic lights along the way,” Grondin told Bridge Detroit.
The roughly $4.4 billion bridge was financed by Canada, and as such the northern neighbor will reap the toll revenue, while providing the maintenance for the next 36 years.
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For as much as bridge tourism is a thing in Michigan and the United States, the Gordie Howe Bridge will join the Peace and Rainbow bridges in Niagara Falls, and the Thousand Islands Bridge in New York that feature pedestrian and cycling routes along the flanks of the span.
And it’s far from merely being there to provide visitors with a chance to snap a photo from the middle: each side connects with wider trail systems along the banks of the Detroit River, where waterfront redevelopment has included several charming parks to pass through.
The bridge won’t only connect Detroit and Windsor, Interstate 75 and its Canadian equivalent, and the United States and Canada, but also two hockey-loving nations who shared in a great man’s sporting capacities: one by the nation of his birth, and the other by the city in which he dominated for so long as a forward for the Red Wings.
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