The Gordie Howe International Bridge is set to open next year to much fanfare and promise of new development in Toledo, but it will have to overcome a border crossing trend that has been in steep decline since 2000.
Truck traffic between Detroit and Windsor, Ont. — the busiest commercial land crossing between the United States and Canada — fell 29.5 percent between July, 2000, and July, 2023, according to data compiled by the Bridge & Tunnel Operators Association.
In real numbers, 2.6 million trucks last year crossed over the Ambassador Bridge and through the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel compared with 3.7 million in 2000, the statistics show.
The decline in passenger car traffic is even more stunning, association data show. It fell 57.5 percent to 7.2 million crossings in 2023 from 17.1 million in 2000 — and that includes a complete recovery of traffic post-pandemic.
It is into this environment that the Gordie Howe bridge is projected to open in the fall of 2025. Serious planning for the bridge began in 2000 after several years of earlier traffic declines caused, in part, by auto plants and supplier operations closing in Michigan, the Midwest, and Ontario.
Yet Toledo developers and economic planners are bullish about the new $5 billion bridge's potential benefits for northwest Ohio, especially in terms of trucking and logistics opportunities.
Brian McMahon, president of Danberry National Ltd., said at least a dozen regional and national developers are looking at tracts of land through Toledo and Wood County and points beyond to take advantage of the quicker traffic flow that the Gordie Howe bridge will provide.
Northwest Ohio received this attention through the growth of local fulfillment centers built or planned by Amazon, Federal Express, and United Parcel Service as well as a giant data center coming to Middleton Township, he said.
But he said he’s hearing from interested developers that the new Gordie Howe bridge is making the area even more attractive for logistics given such existing assets as the I-75 corridor, Ohio Turnpike, multiple rail lines, and the ports in Toledo and Monroe.
“There is a herd mentality,” Mr. McMahon, a commercial real estate broker, said of developers building in areas already staked out by others.
When open, the Gordie Howe bridge will connect traffic between the busy Highway 401 on the Canadian side to I-75 in Detroit, about two miles down the Detroit River from the Ambassador Bridge.
The Canadian government is paying for the bridge, and it will be operated by the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority.
In response to written questions, Heather Grondin, chief relations officer of the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, said It will provide improved border processing capabilities and, for the first time, a highway-to-highway connection from I-75 in Michigan to Highway 401 in Ontario. Highway 401 connects Windsor with Toronto, for example.
“Early traffic studies indicated that the improved highway-to-highway infrastructure could result in an 11-to-18 minute time savings, which is critical to just-in-time delivery and the movement of perishable goods and livestock,” Ms. Grondin said.
She said the dollar value of that time savings will depend on the user.
Beyond that, the Gordie Howe bridge will have six lanes versus four on the Ambassador Bridge, with the ability to configure how they are used depending on traffic.
In addition, the Gordie Howe Bridge will have 16 toll booths with manual, automatic, and electronic toll collection as well as 24 primary inspection lanes separating commercial and noncommercial vehicles on the Canadian Port of Entry, with 14 commercial on-site secondary inspection bays, Ms. Grondin said.
The U.S. Port of Entry will have 36 primary inspection lanes, separating commercial and noncommercial traffic, with 28 commercial secondary inspection bays, she said.
Gary Thompson, executive vice president of the Regional Growth Partnership in Toledo, said time will tell whether the Gordie Howe bridge actually results in more border crossings between Detroit and Windsor or if it takes a share from the Ambassador Bridge and other crossings, such as the Blue Water Bridge between Port Huron and Sarnia, Ont.
The point is that Toledo and its businesses should be prepared to welcome development if the opportunity presents itself.
“We want to get our share of that traffic,” he said.
Also a looming question is whether commercial fares will rise above those at the Ambassador Bridge to pay back the Canadian government for the $5 billion investment.
Tolls have not been set, said Ms. Grondin.
Ohio Logistics CEO Chuck Bills says he believes fares will rise.
But he said he hopes the more efficient route, along with customs on the new bridge, will compensate in time savings for a fare increase. Ohio Logistics is a warehousing and transportation company based in Findlay.
“Should help our customers and industry in general be more cost efficient in transportation,” Mr. Bills said of the new bridge.
Ambassador Bridge officials, who requested that media questions be put in writing, did not respond to the written questions nor to phone calls and emails requesting comment.
Nearly 30 percent of the $1.3 trillion (CDN) in overall Canada-U.S. trade crosses at Windsor and Detroit, said Ms. Grondin of the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority.
That is equal to $390 billion. Additionally, more than 250,000 jobs in Michigan depend on that trade and investment, and an estimated 6,000 workers cross between Windsor and Detroit every day, she said.
The trucks that carry that freight across the Gordie Howe bridge can avoid the congestion they now experience after leaving the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit and having to double back to I-96 or I-94 to get the freight east and west, said Jim Robey, principal of Michigan-based Robey Analytics, which produced a study for the Regional Growth Partnership on bridge-related development prospects. It is called the Gordie Howe Bridge Project — Creating opportunities for northwest Ohio.
Mr. Robey said going down I-75 to the Ohio Turnpike could prove quicker except for trucks that really needed to stay along those Michigan routes to reach destinations.
He said he believes that will mean more traffic and logistics developments in northwest Ohio to handle the additional volumes.
The study used CoStar real estate data to identify ample tracts of developable land from Monroe and into northwest Ohio. And Toledo accounted for 16 percent of currently available warehousing and light industrial space of 20 million square feet available in the Detroit area, Ann Arbor, and northwest Ohio, the study showed.
Another 20 million square feet is being proposed in the target area, with Toledo holding down an outsized 40 percent of the proposed space, Mr. Robey said.
Meanwhile, the study shows that southwest Ontario has just 1.6 million existing square feet available for new businesses and only an additional 448,000 proposed.
Mr. Robey also said he believes battery and EV parts suppliers locally and in southwest Ontario will fuel truck traffic on the Gordie Howe bridge to serve automotive customers all along the I-75 corridor, including American Honda, which is planning EV production at its Marysville, East Liberty, and Anna plants in Ohio.
First Published May 19, 2024, 11:30 a.m.
