Gordie Howe Bridge: Infrastructure Investment Play

International trade relies on good infrastructure to ensure the smooth and efficient movement of both goods and people. This is often done through rail or harbors, especially for raw materials and heavier goods. However, good road connections are equally important, especially when it comes to developed countries with a long land border.

This is the case with the Canada-USA border, where 25% of all merchandise trade between the United States and Canada by value transits through only one bridge, the privately owned جسر السفير. This bridge carries 60% to 70% of commercial truck traffic in the region.

This trade region connecting Michigan to Ontario is an economically very important one, especially for maintaining the supply chains of the automotive industries of the United States and Canada. In addition, up to 5,000 Canadian daily commuters work in neighboring Detroit.

The Ambassador Bridge was built in 1929. In recent years, it has been privatized, which led to criticisms that such infrastructure with a quasi-monopoly on the local Canada-USA trade should not be in private hands.

This debate will now be solved by the construction of the Gordie Howe International Bridge. The bridge will provide uninterrupted freeway traffic flow, a big upgrade from the Ambassador Bridge. It will also be the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world, crossing water without towers or piers in the water, with a main span of 853 meters (2,799 feet).

And it will bring much-needed extra capacity and competition to the transit between the US and Canada in the area.

Why the Gordie Howe Bridge Was Needed

Ambassador Bridge’s Legacy

The Ambassador Bridge was built by private companies looking to improve the Canada-USA trade connection, after many public projects failed to materialize since the 1880s. At the time of its completion, it was the longest suspended central span in the world.

As a result, the bridge was always a private venture, first as the Detroit International Bridge Corporation, then partially owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, and then by local trucking entrepreneur Manuel Moroun, who eventually privatized the bridge.

It is like many other key infrastructures in the USA and Canada: impressive, but marking its age of almost a full century. It notably lacks interconnections to directly connect the I-75 and I-96 freeways. Besides its age, it has also been described as “crumbling” as far back as 2015, and overall, its owner has been accused of not maintaining it properly.

Ambassador Bridge owner Manuel Moroun was offered $2B in 2009 by the Canadian government for the bridge, but refused to sell it for less than $3B.

Building The Next Generation

It is within this context of the increasingly inadequate service provided by the Ambassador Bridge that the Gordie Howe International Bridge was conceived. It was first imagined in the 2000s, with early permitting efforts starting in the early 2010s.

Despite opposition and various lawsuits brought by Moroun regarding the competition the new bridge would inflict on the Ambassador Bridge, the new project moved on.

Hopefully, it can also contribute to maintaining close relations between the two countries, despite political tensions.

The bridge will be owned equally by Canada and the state of Michigan, and has cost $6.4B to Canada. To this day, the price of the toll tickets has yet to be announced.

The bridge is named after Canadian ice hockey player جوردي هاو, whose career included 25 years with the Detroit Red Wings.

Construction started in 2018, the bridge deck was finished in 2024, and the bridge is expected to open in 2026, after the construction and commissioning reached 98% completion.

It is currently in the “lighting and toll-testing” phase, moving toward its official grand opening.

Gordie Howe International Bridge By The Numbers

مرر للتمرير →

In total, the bridge is 2.5 km long (1.55 miles) with an 853-meter span over the water (2,799 feet).

216 stay cables are holding the bridge every 15 meters (49 feet), each holding a 300-ton bridge deck segment. The cables connect the deck to the 220-meter towers, which are meant to reflect the curvature of a hockey stick mid-slapshot.

The bridge will have 6 lanes, 3 in each direction. The 37.5m (123 feet) wide bridge also includes a multi-use path that can be used by pedestrians and bicycles. A 1.2-meter/4-foot concrete barrier separates cyclists and pedestrians from vehicular traffic.

The bridge is conceived as a visual landmark as well, with a dynamic nighttime look, thanks to 6,000 programmable LED fixtures across the towers, cables, and deck.

A wall made of 2.9 meters/9.5 feet tall posts, 34,000 in total, ensures the safety of the travelers by being both extremely resistant (including to potential vehicle crashes) and unclimbable. They are shaped like a hockey stick, as a reference to the hockey player who gave his name to the bridge. A 0.15-meter/0.5-foot gap between posts preserves clear sight lines.

As this is not just a bridge, but a cross-border passage as well, both sides have built extensive infrastructure to handle the necessary controls. On-site full-scale imaging is used to check trucks as quickly as possible.

The Canadian port of entry site is about 130 acres with 11 structures, 16 toll lanes, and 24 primary inspection lanes. The U.S. side is about 167 acres with 13 structures and 36 primary inspection lanes.

It will connect to the Michigan inter-exchange that saw the addition of 4 new road bridges, 5 new pedestrian bridges, and 4 inter-exchange ramps.

The construction created 2,500 jobs, and the bridge is expected to operate for at least 30 years without a major renovation.

Technology Behind the Gordie Howe International Bridge

The Bridge will include a Multi-Lane Free-Flow (MLFF) tolling system. This electronic tolling technology uses RFID and other detection systems to allow for the detection and payment of the toll by a vehicle without having to stop. Of course, traditional tolling will still be available as well.

This is going to matter especially for the Gordie Howe International Bridge, as it will see a large percentage of total traffic made up of truck freight and regular daily commutes.

Traffic surveillance systems and automatic detection of truck breakdown will also be integrated into the bridge traffic management center, as well as Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) video that will capture unauthorized movement near trucks.

Lastly, the structural health of the bridge will be constantly monitored not just visually, but with integrated high-fidelity fiber-optic structural sensors.

Fiber optic sensors outperform traditional sensors in structural health monitoring (SHM) due to their high sensitivity, resistance to electromagnetic interference, and ability to provide accurate, real-time data over long distances.

Investing In The Gordie Howe International Bridge

ايكون

The North American infrastructure company Aecon has been instrumental in the construction of the Gordie Howe International Bridge. It was the Canadian contractor for the project, and supervised most of the critical steps, from the building of the foundation piles to the assembly of the bridge deck.

The company has been involved in countless infrastructure megaprojects, from major bridges to tunnels, hydropower dams, nuclear power plants, urban transports, and industrial facilities.

In its construction activities, nuclear and civil engineering represent the largest activities, followed by utilities and industrial facilities.

المصدر ايكون

The company also operates concessions of major infrastructure projects, and will own a 20% interest in the Gordie Howe International Bridge. This includes 50.1% of the Bermuda LF Wade International Airport and 50% of the Cyril E. King Airport and Henry E. Rohlsen Airports.

المصدر ايكون

The company already has a very steady pipeline of upcoming projects, with most of them located in North America. In total, the company project backlog is worth $10B.

المصدر ايكون

The company generated $4.2B of revenues in 2024, and has been known to investors for increasing its dividends by 7% CAGR.

A third activity for the company is its business as a utility company. It provides pipelines, electric power grid, and telecom networks, mostly in Canada. The utility branch of the company is owned at 27.5% by the major infrastructure & investment firms Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. With almost $1B of recurring revenues in the last year, this is becoming a significant segment of the company.

Overall, Aecon is a company centered around infrastructure and large-scale construction projects, with that expertise then deployed in various niches like utilities, nuclear power plants, civil engineering, etc.

This makes it a good company to bet on a revival of infrastructure spending in North America, driven by a political goal of re-industrialization and in the larger context of de-globalization.

Latest Aecon (ARE) Stock News and Developments