Friday, June 14, 2024 was a historic day for Canada and the United States of America as Ironworkers completed the installation of the final two permanent edge girders of the Gordie Howe International Bridge.

Work was carried out early in the day to avoid the heat and, once the deck was finally connected, it was celebrated with a symbolic Topping Out ceremony, a handshake between the two nations and a traditional evergreen tree to bring good luck.

While the bridge is now connected, there is still some work to do before it will be open for use.

Workers are on step 9 with some steps still remaining:

• Step 9: Install the remaining components for the mid-span closure. This includes nine redundancy girders, two floor beams, 12 precast panels and 12 soffit panels. Unlike the other segments, the mid-span closure does not require stay cable installation.
• Step 10: Install concrete precast panels and complete bolting of all mid-span closure components.
• Step 11: Perform a global survey on the entire structure again, re-stress stay cables as needed and stitch concrete precast panels.
• Step 12: Remove the remainder of the temporary bracing (transverse cranks) and remove deck cranes. At this point, we have achieved a significant landmark with the longest main span of any cable-stayed bridge in North America now connected.
• Step 13: While this completes the connection, it does not mean the bridge is ready for use. A substantial amount of work is still needed, including the re-stressing of stay cables, post-tensioning of the deck and the installation of electrical, fire suppression, drainage systems, barriers, signage, lighting, deck paving and pavement markings and complete the multi-use path. This work will occur over the next year.

The bridge will have six-lanes: three Canadian-bound, three US-bound and will have a total length of approximately 2.5 kilometres. Once complete, the Gordie Howe International Bridge will be the longest cable-stayed bridge in North America.

October 5, 2018, marked the official start of construction of the Gordie Howe International Bridge project.  Construction of the deck began in December 2022. The official bridge opening is planned for Fall 2025.

Images and video supplied by Gordie Howe International Bridge