Massive U.S.-Canada bridge is just months away from opening
This same self-climbing process was carried out in reverse, descending until hitting a reachable height before being carted off in sections with the help of a giant 600-ton crawler crane with a boom arm that can reach 165 metres.
On the Ontario side of the crossing, the Canadian crane was fully dismantled in May. Once the crawler crane was done with the removal of the red-painted Canadian crane, it was dismantled and trucked across the bridge in over 40 trips to begin work on dismantling the U.S. crane, a task expected to wrap up by the end of June.
The removal of the two cranes is a huge step forward for the impressive new crossing, but there is still plenty of work to go before a previously announced September opening — a date that appears to have been swapped out for a less specific “fall” window.
Among the remaining work left to accomplish for the new bridge, crews are racing to complete installation of electrical, drainage, fire suppression systems, barriers, signage, lighting, pavement markings, and a multi-use path that will allow pedestrians and cyclists to cross the bridge without a car.
The bridge will close a missing link in the busy international trucking route between Ontario and Michigan, relieving the existing Ambassador Bridge of freight traffic and easing cross-border car trips.
However, the bridge’s high trade capacity and massive border facilities were all designed during a very different era of cross-border relations.
The decline in Canadian tourists crossing into the U.S. and campaigns to boycott American products could very well stand in the way of the $6.4 billion bridge reaching its full potential, and even with a thaw in the fierce annexation rhetoric seen months earlier, many Canadians are still steering clear of their neighbours’ products and destinations.