Pete Hoekstra is confident a deal will be worked out to get the new Gordie Howe International Bridge open. He just isn’t sure when.
Hoekstra, the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, said Tuesday the Trump administration hasn’t come to an agreement yet with the Canadian government regarding the opening of the bridge, but told Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Republican House Speaker Matt Hall that the issue “will get worked out.”
Hoekstra, a former Michigan congressman, was in Lansing to provide Whitmer and Hall with an update on negotiations over the six-lane, 1.5-mile bridge over the Detroit River connecting Detroit to Canada.
According to a report from The Detroit News, Hoekstra said the U.S. has had regular discussions with the Canadian government, but have not yet resulted in an agreement. He did not have an estimated opening date for the bridge, which had been scheduled to open to cross-border traffic this spring.
“At the end of the day, the president will have to sign off on it,” Hoekstra said of an eventual agreement, according to The News. “There’s a lot of issues right now between the U.S. and Canada. The bridge is one more.”
Officials with the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority said they’re still expecting the bridge to open this spring, though no date has been scheduled.
Delaying the deal, according to Hoekstra, is the fact that many of the conditions in the original agreement haven’t been realized, according to published accounts. The project came in “massively overbudget” — about $6.4 billion Canadian dollars ($4.7 billion U.S. dollars) — and border traffic is down, Hoekstra said, according to The News.
