The new US-Canada border crossing won’t be ready until 2025, but seeing that only a hockey rink-sized gap remains between the US and Canadian sections, it’s an appropriate place to celebrate the imminent completion of the Gordie Howe Memorial Bridge.
With one skate in Detroit and another in Windsor, Ontario, the bridge deck is set to be finished in June according to the joint-venture contractor, Bridging North America.
It’s far from just your average bridge, and Engineering News Record reports that with the central segment spanning 0.53 miles between the two bridge towers, it will have the longest main span of any cable-stayed bridge in North America.
It also will be the longest steel and concrete composite deck for any cable-stayed bridge in the world.
Nicknamed “Mr. Hockey”, Gordie Howe after whom the bridge is named, is considered the most complete player to ever play the game. At his retirement, his 801 goals, 1,049 assists, and 1,850 total points won mostly through his 25 seasons with the Detroit Red Wings, were all NHL records that stood until they were broken by Wayne Gretzky.
The bridge won’t only connect Detroit and Windsor, Interstate 75 and its Canadian equivalent, and the United States and Canada, but also two hockey-loving nations who shared in this great man’s sporting capacities: one by the nation of his birth, and the other by the city in which he dominated for so long.
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“Bridging North America is proud of the dedicated engineers and skilled tradespeople whose unwavering commitment to safety and excellence has propelled us closer to completing the bridge deck of the Gordie Howe International Bridge. Their resilience and skill are the driving force behind the realization of this historic infrastructure project,” said David Henderson, CEO of BNA, in a statement.
The bridge will include customs facilities on both sides, and probably be open to traffic by October of 2025, 29 months short of Howe’s hundredth birthday.
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