The Bridge Supports for the Gordie Howe International Bridge

 This bridge has been a long time making and it seems like it is finally coming to fruition.  In 2004, this bridge was proposed as the Detroit River International Crossing.  It wasn't meant to replace either the Ambassador Bride or the Windsor Tunnel but was meant as a way of re-routing truck traffic around Windsor rather than through Windsor.

The main reason for this bridge is that the Ambassador Bridge can not keep up with the truck traffic that has increased considerably since the passage of NAFTA in the early 90's.  Also, the people of Windsor do not like the amount of truck traffic that passes through their town.  When the Ambassador Bridge was built, there wasn't much in the area that its exit passes through, over the years, that has been built up and now it is a neighborhood in its own right.  Also when it was built, trucks weren't nearly as big as they are and the company that maintains the Bridge has a hard enough time keeping up with it.

Anyway, the Ambassador Bridge was owned by Matty Maroun and he was not interested in having another bridge to compete with his.  People in both the Canadian and US governments were kind of surprised that an international crossing was owned privately.  And for years, they tried to get him to upgrade his maintenance.

To make a long story short, Matty Maroun fought this bridge tooth and nail.  He used his connections in the Michigan legislature to block any state founding.  He used his connections to the US legislature to block any funding  there.  I think he even used his connections to block funding from Canada.   He even pushed for a ballot initiative that would have made it even more difficult to fund the bridge.  That failed.  Shortly after that, Canada decided they would fund the bridge and the US can pay back through tolls.  That was acceptable to both sides.

I think construction was supposed to start earlier last year but then COVID hit.  Now that they've figured out how to control things, construction has started.  This bridge will be a suspension bridge like the one in Toledo and should look pretty nice.  It is supposed to be completed by 2024.