U.S.-Canada Bridge Nears Completion, Wrapping Up A Decades Old Tale

Spanning the Detroit River, the Gordie Howe International Bridge will connect southern Detroit, Michigan, USA and Windsor, Ontario, Canada when completed. (Photo by Dominic Gwinn / Middle East Images / Middle East Images via AFP) (Photo by DOMINIC GWINN/ Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

A new bridge between the United States and Canada is almost complete. Once open for business, it will (or may) end a decades-old soap opera.

The Gordie Howe International Bridge, constructed at a cost of C$6.4 billion ($4.6 billion), will be a third crossing between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.

It will be added to a Detroit-Windsor tunnel (connecting the downtowns of the two cities) and the Ambassador Bridge, the main commercial link in the region.

The new bridge, named after a famed Detroit Red Wings hockey player, was built by Canada in part to make automotive trade between the two countries easier.

The privately owned Ambassador Bridge opened in 1929, according to the Detroit Historical Society. It is the main point of U.S.-Canadian auto trade.

Throughout the early 2000s, the Ambassador Bridge owners conflicted with Canada.

The Ambassador Bridge owners sought to construct a new bridge next to the existing structure. The idea: The new bridge would take over trade while the old bridge could be used for emergencies. Detroit International Bridge Co., which owns the Ambassador Bridge, purchased houses and land for the replacement bridge, the company said in 2008.

Canada had other ideas.

The country sought a new structure jointly funded with the state of Michigan. Eventually, Canada moved to finance a new bridge by itself. Tolls charged at the new bridge will be used to pay off costs. The Gordie Howe bridge is about a mile away from the Ambassador Bridge.

The Gordie Howe bridge will connect Interstate 75 in Michigan to an extension of Canada’s busy 401 highway. The Gordie Howe bridge will have three lanes on each side.

The new structure will “address some really important transportation needs,” Heather Grondin, chief relations officer of Canada’s Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, said during a Society of Automotive Analysts webinar on Wednesday.

The Gordie Howe bridge, while almost complete, doesn’t have an opening date. The bridge authority says it intends the structure to open this year.

Tolls for the bridge have yet to be set. All tolls will be paid on the Canadian side of the bridge.

Grondin said during the webinar that less than 2% of the bridge to be built. The official said the Gordie Howe bridge will be the choice for U.S.-Canada trade shipments.

All of this is taking place amid a U.S.-Canada trade war. U.S. President Donald Trump repeatedly has said the U.S. should annex Canada. The bridge may yet experience more drama.