After nearly six years of construction, the biggest bridge to ever connect Canada and the U.S. is now just 11 metres away from completion.
Catch-up: The 2.5-kilometre-long bridge will connect Windsor and Detroit, adding capacity to what is North America’s busiest border crossing. And because it’s a Canadian bridge, it’s named after hockey legend Gordie Howe and resembles a hockey stick taking a slap shot.
- Right now, the routes that connect the cities are the Ambassador Bridge, a four-lane crossing completed in 1929, and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, completed in 1930.
- Delays have brought the cost of the project up to $6.4 billion, a bill that Ottawa is picking up on its own.
Why it matters: Every day, $3.6 billion worth of trade passes between Canada and the U.S. Nearly 20% of that travels across the traffic-prone Ambassador Bridge. The new bridge will help alleviate costly delays, saving truck drivers a combined 850,000 hours per year.
What’s next: The two sides of the bridge will meet in the middle of the Detroit River by the end of the month, but if you’re hoping to skip the border traffic on a summer trip down south, you’re out of luck — the bridge won’t be fully operational for another year.—LA