What is the Gordie Howe Bridge, a strategic bridge between Canada and the United States threatened by Donald Trump?

It is a key corridor for North American trade. Each year, millions of trucks transit between the United States and Canada across the border between Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario. Later this year, they will be able to use the Gordie Howe Bridge, a six-lane bridge intended to improve the fluidity of cross-border trade.

But here it is: Donald Trump, who has increased hostile declarations against Canada since his return to power, threatened on Monday to block the project, estimating that the United States should own “at least half” of this infrastructure.

On his Truth Social network, he wrote that he would not allow the bridge to open “until the United States has been fully compensated for all thatils gave (to Canada).” And added: “We are going to start negotiations”, without further details.

This Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney tried to reassure about the future of the project, indicating that the situation would “be resolved” after speaking with Donald Trump.

An estimated cost of 4 billion euros

According to a document published by the project owner, the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, Canada is providing full financing for the bridge, but it will belong jointly to this country and the American state of Michigan.

The project, launched in 2018 and whose total cost is 6.4 billion Canadian dollars – around 4 billion euros – is now complete. The project team is now carrying out testing before commissioning, according to a fact sheet published by the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority (WDBA) on February 6 and relayed by Radio Canada.

The project, named after Canadian ice hockey legend Gordie Howecom, takes not only the bridge itself, with a length of 2.5 km, but also ports of entry on both sides of the Detroit River: one of 53 ha on the Canadian side, and another of 60 ha on the American side.

“It will be the longest cable-stayed bridge ever built in North America, and the fourth in the world,” says Aecon, one of the construction company partners in the project, on its website.

Local economic vector

The future road axis is all the more strategic as it is located on the Windsor-Detroit trade corridor, the “busiest land crossing point on the Canadian-American border”, ensuring “31%” of road trade between the two countries, according to the call for tenders for the construction of the infrastructure launched by the Canadian government in 2016.

Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat, said closing this “incredibly important infrastructure project” would be “catastrophic for the economy” of the American state, according to our Canadian colleagues.

On the Canadian side, Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens told CBC that he was confident the bridge would open and “that this is just one more obstacle that Donald Trump has placed in the way of doing good things, not only for our country, but also for his own.”