The Gordie Howe International Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, will open on Monday, July 27, ending years of delay on a cross-border crossing meant to move people, freight and trade more quickly between the two sides of the border.
Canada and Michigan said the opening will happen with the support of the United States government, and the joint statement laid out a package of cooperative steps on toll governance and transparency. It also said the two sides agreed to investments in the region through a 15-year economic development fund tied to a portion of profits from bridge operations, while the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority will work with U.S. officials on toll-rate adjustments and seek concurrence for certain non-market related toll changes.
The date matters now because the bridge has been long-awaited, and the opening lands just as attention has turned to how the tolls and revenue will be split. Mike Rogers said Friday that he had spoken a day earlier to Howard Lutnick and that a deal was imminent. He said the United States could receive as much as half of the toll revenues, but the joint statement did not spell out those terms, and it did not set out any trade concessions either.
That gap leaves a central piece of the arrangement unresolved in public view. Under the original setup, all toll revenues were designated to go to Canada until it recouped the $4.7-billion U.S. cost of building the bridge, a structure the two sides agreed to in 2012 before revenues would be split. Rogers also said the expected deal would include terms excluding Chinese-made electric vehicles from entering the U.S. via the bridge, adding another layer to a pact that has not yet been fully described.
Gretchen Whitmer said thousands of Michigan workers built the bridge and called it a great deal for the state. She said it will speed up auto production, lower costs, ease traffic, strengthen agriculture and give people on both sides of the border better-paying jobs and a brighter future. Gregor Robertson said the bridge will soon be opening after years of planning, partnership and construction, and that it will provide a new connection for the region while strengthening one of the world's most important trade corridors.
For travelers and businesses in Detroit and Windsor, the immediate next step is simple: the bridge opens July 27. What still needs to be seen is whether the revenue-sharing and toll terms hinted at in recent talks will be finalized in the same way, or whether they will remain part of the bridge’s unfinished business even after the first traffic rolls across.
