U.S. and Canadian officials reached an agreement to open the Gordie Howe International Bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, on July 27, according to a joint press release. The opening will be about six weeks past the originally planned June 12 debut for the new crossing.
The $4.7 billion bridge will add a second span between Detroit and Windsor and is expected to handle 400 commercial crossings per hour. The Detroit-Windsor crossing serves as the largest commercial land border between the United States and Canada, handling approximately $126 billion worth of goods transported by commercial trucks in 2023 alone.
To open the span, the U.S. and Canada spent the past several weeks working on a new series of measures regarding toll governance and the establishment of a 15-year economic development effort funded by a portion of profits from bridge operations.
A 2021 report from the Cross-Border Institute projected the new bridge would speed up truck border crossing times, saving about 850,000 hours annually, leading to billions of dollars in economic savings over the crossing’s service lifetime. For decades, commercial traffic between Detroit and Windsor utilized the nearby Ambassador Bridge, which handles about 40,000 crossings and the cross-border transport of $323 million worth of goods daily.
Stephen Laskowski, president and CEO of the Canadian Trucking Alliance, said: “For years, the Canadian trucking industry, together with manufacturers, exporters, labour organizations, and business leaders, advocated for a modern second crossing at Windsor–Detroit. Today, that vision becomes reality.”
Collin Long, OOIDA senior director of government affairs, stated: “By increasing capacity and reducing congestion at the border, this new crossing will help owner-operators spend less time sitting in traffic and more time delivering freight safely.”
