Gordie Howe International Bridge Opens to Trucks, Promising Significant Trade Speedups

After decades of planning and months of delays, the Gordie Howe International Bridge has finally opened to trucks. The new bridge will help speed up travel times for goods passing through the Windsor-Detroit corridor, saving time and money.

The existing Blue Water Bridge, Ambassador Bridge, and Detroit-Windsor Tunnel have supported massive amounts of trade for decades but are near capacity, leading to congestion. With three lanes of capacity going in each direction, the Gordie Howe bridge is expected to significantly speed up travel times.

The new bridge will take 44.5% of commercial traffic through the Windsor-Detroit corridor, according to a January filing from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security establishing the route as an official port of entry. This will save truck drivers an estimated 850,000 hours per year in wait times.

The Gordie Howe International Bridge will also directly connect two major American and Canadian highways - the Interstate 75 in the U.S. and the 400-series highways in Ontario. While only shaving off a few minutes from each trip, this time adds up to significant savings for trucking companies, estimated between $20,000 and $100,000 a month.

The bridge could have serious benefits for the economy writ large, given that a third of all trade between the U.S. and Canada passes through this corridor. The Windsor-Detroit corridor sees about $1 billion in daily trade, making it the busiest international land border crossing in North America.