The construction of the Gordie Howe International Bridge and its customs plazas in Detroit and Windsor is nearing completion, setting the stage for a potential standoff with President Donald Trump over the opening of the new Detroit River span, The Detroit News has learned.
The construction and testing of all systems at the massive $4.7 billion bridge, customs plazas and ramps connecting to Michigan and Ontario freeways could be days away from being complete, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the progress.
But the sources cautioned that a number of variables are at play as various U.S., Michigan, and Canadian government agencies grant final approvals to open the new bridge to commercial truck and passenger vehicle traffic.
Then there’s the Trump factor, the sources said, creating continued uncertainty of when the bridge will actually open to traffic after eight years of construction.
The U.S. president has demanded concessions from Canada in trade talks, or a share of future toll revenue, as a condition for opening the Gordie Howe Bridge. The White House ramped up its pressure in recent days amid a broader trade stalemate with Canada, demanding that substantially more U.S. content be included in Canadian- and Mexican-assembled vehicles that are exported to American car dealership lots, Reuters reported.
A Trump administration trade envoy reportedly brought that demand to negotiations this week in Mexico City over the United States-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement. Canadian officials were not present at those talks, a sign of the fractured trade relationship between Washington and Ottawa.
No approvals for the bridge to open to traffic from the Federal Highway Administration and U.S. Department of Transportation are seen as possible without the blessing of the Trump White House, the sources said. Spokespersons for the highway administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation did not respond to messages seeking comment.
The international agency responsible for overseeing construction of the new bridge, the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, has repeatedly said the Howe bridge was on track to open this spring. Three weeks remain of spring. Bridge authority officials did not respond Friday to a request for comment on the status of the bridge project.
Trump’s ambassador to Canada, former Michigan congressman Pete Hoekstra, has said the final decision rests with the second-term Republican president.
“At the end of the day, the president will have to sign off on it,” Hoekstra told The Detroit News in April. “There’s a lot of issues right now between the U.S. and Canada. The bridge is one more.”
Canadian expert: ‘People are anxious to see the Gordie open’
There has been near silence for months among Michigan and Canadians official after Trump publicly threatened to block the opening of the bridge following the revelation of a meeting between his commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, and Matthew Moroun, the billionaire owner of the Ambassador Bridge, whose private crossing will face the first competition for lucrative truck traffic in the Ambassador’s 97 years of operation.
In February, a White House official suggested that Trump could amend the Gordie Howe Bridge’s presidential permit, issued in 2013 by then-President Barack Obama as a means of extracting toll revenue or other concessions from the Canadians.
Under the original deal, Michigan and Canada share equal ownership of the bridge, but Michigan can’t benefit from the toll revenue until Canada pays off the debt it incurred constructing the six-lane bridge, customs plaza and connections to Interstate 75 in Detroit and Ontario’s 401 Highway.
The months-long stalemate, combined with the tariffs the Trump administration slapped on Canadian vehicles, car auto parts, steel, aluminum, copper and lumber, has created jitters across the Detroit River.
“Businesses are still holding their cards close to their chest; they’re still waiting to see what the outcome of a renegotiated (U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement) will look like,” said Marta Leardi-Anderson, executive director of the Cross Border Institute at the University of Windsor. “… But I think people are anxious to see the Gordie open. It’s a beautiful piece of infrastructure.”
Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg: ‘Open the bridge!’
The U.S.-Canada trade negotiations détente and the uncertain opening of the Canadian-financed Gordie Howe Bridge without U.S. or Michigan taxpayer support were simmering issues at this week’s Mackinac Policy Conference, a gathering of the state’s business and political leaders hosted by the Detroit Regional Chamber, which spent years lobbying for a new bridge.
“It’s finally built, (and) President Trump is preventing it from opening,” Detroit Regional Chamber CEO Sandy Baruah said Wednesday on stage at the conference in the Grand Hotel’s theater.
“What is the impact of that? And is there any rationale for not opening?” Baruah asked former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
“No!” Buttigieg shouted. “No, there is not! Open the bridge!”
Buttigieg, who ran the U.S. Department of Transportation under former President Joe Biden, said the Trump administration’s delay tactics are an act of “corruption” after Moroun donated $1 million to a pro-Trump political organization. Moroun also sat for an in-person meeting with Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, hours before Trump announced his opposition to the bridge opening.
“It is as simple as that. It is corruption,” Buttigieg said. “And I would expect and hope every Republican and every Democrat in this state and in this region will be equally full-throated about demanding that that corrupt reason be dismantled, that that bridge be open.”
Moroun and his family’s Detroit International Bridge Co. have never publicly explained why he donated the money to MAGA Inc., a pro-Trump independent expenditure-only political committee, more commonly known as a super PAC. A spokesman for the Moroun bridge company did not respond Friday to a message seeking comment.
Buttigieg characterized the “corruption” as “blindingly obvious.”
“The bridge should be opened, and there should be nothing political about it,” he said.
“Awesome. Love that answer,” Baruah replied.
clivengood@detroitnews.com
gschwab@detroitnews.com
Staff Writer Beth LeBlanc contributed.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Gordie Howe Bridge could be days away from completion, sources say
Reporting by Chad Livengood and Grant Schwab, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
