Five year anniversary of start of Gordie Howe International Bridge marked on Thursday

Officials with the Gordie Howe International Bridge project are celebrating the five year anniversary of the official start of construction on the new cross border cable-stayed bridge.

On Oct. 5, 2018, the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority (WDBA) and Bridging North America were joined by the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and then Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to mark the official start of on-site construction.

“Time is moving so quickly,” exclaimed WDBA Vice President of Corporate Affairs and External Relations, Heather Grondin.

“We can't believe that it's already been five years since our official construction start,” she added.

Grondin said more than 10,000 people have been trained to work on the $5.7 billion project in the half decade since it began, and noted they’re still working to be open to traffic by the end of 2024.

“We have different numbers of workers at different times,” Grondin said. “On average we have about 2,500 people working across the four project components.”

Grondin continued, “We're still working toward that contracted completion date of end of 2024, but let's not forget what's happened over the last five years. We had a multi year pandemic that we've dealt with and had to manage around. So we keep talking about schedule, still trying to meet that deadline, but also recognizing what we've had to overcome during this period.”

The Gordie Howe International Bridge marked its five year anniversary since construction got underway on Oct. 5, 2023. (Chris Campbell/CTV News Windsor)

According to the WDBA, the project includes the Canadian and U.S. ports of entry, along with the bridge and the Michigan interchange. With an 853-metre clear span between the two towers, the Gordie Howe International Bridge will be the longest cable-stayed bridge in North America and the seventh longest in the world.

“The approach that we're doing now is an unbalanced cantilever which means we're building the back span first and then we started over the river,” Grondin explained. “That wasn't the original plan, but ultimately, that's how we're doing it.”

Grondin said they’re past the half way mark for cable installation, and noted the bridge will have 108 from each tower to give it an iconic look and feel.

Grondin also noted the Canadian tower will soon reach its full height later this month, like the U.S. tower did in August at 722 feet, or 220 metres.

“We have about 60 cables installed from each tower, once when done will have 108 from each tower so we're past the halfway mark just on the cable installation. And then when you're looking at the bridge deck, so that's a portion of the deck that goes over the river we're about a third done that,” she said.

The Gordie Howe International Bridge marked its five year anniversary since construction got underway on Oct. 5, 2023. (Chris Campbell/CTV News Windsor)

Grondin told CTV News Windsor that project officials anticipate the span across the Detroit River to connect in the summer of 2024, and that work is continuing on the buildings, the canopies and the toll booths that are all part of both ports of entry.

“What we've been hearing from community members is that they see this as a physical representation of the relationship between Canada and the US. We received very positive feedback to our community benefits plan and really recognition of those efforts to bring the community into the construction process itself,” Grondin said.

Grondin said that as the five year mark approaches, she gets the feeling from the community that they're officially "in the homestretch."

“We receive a lot of questions, ‘What is the grand opening event going to look like? What's that ribbon cutting going to be looking like? Can I be the first person to drive across the bridge?’ So I think there's a lot of excitement for us to get there and then really have another celebration to say, just like the celebration we did for five years ago. What's it gonna look like when we cut that ribbon?” Grondin concluded.