Gordie Howe bridge will open July 27 after Canada and Michigan reach deal

Detroit is about to get a new front door.

The Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority says the Gordie Howe International Bridge will open on July 27, putting cars and trucks on the six-lane span that arcs across the Detroit River between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.

The authority confirmed the date on July 10, ending a delay that had held up one of the largest infrastructure projects the region has seen.

"After years of planning, partnership, and construction, the Gordie Howe International Bridge will soon be opening," Minister Gregor Robertson said in the announcement.

The numbers are big. The cable-stayed bridge carries a main span of 853 metres, the longest of its kind in North America. The tower legs are designed to echo the curvature of a hockey stick in the motion of a slapshot.

This has been a long time coming. The crossing traces back to binational studies in 2000 and 2001 that warned the existing Ontario-Michigan crossings would not keep up with traffic, which makes July 27 the end of a roughly 25-year process. Ground broke in 2018, so the bridge itself took roughly eight years to build.

The corridor is one of the busiest trade routes on the continent. The Ambassador Bridge, the corridor's primary road crossing, opened on November 15, 1929, and carries more than 25 percent of all merchandise trade between the United States and Canada by value. A second modern span gives freight and commuters another way across.

For Michigan, the win is also about the people who built it. "The Gordie Howe International Bridge has always been a great deal for our state. Thousands of Michigan workers built this critical bridge," Governor Gretchen Whitmer said.

Mark the calendar for July 27.