The lead architect behind the Gordie Howe International Bridge hopes travellers experience something beyond a quicker trip across the border now that the span is open. “I think they should feel a moment of magic,” Erik Behrens told CTV News Monday. “I think that that’s quite important.” Behrens said that experience begins before vehicles reach the bridge’s main span. “They all will enjoy that anticipation when you arrive at the pavilion and you’re driving up this curving approach,” he said. The bridge officially opened to public traffic shortly before noon Monday, marking the end of more than two decades of planning and construction. Two decades in the making For Heather Grondin, chief relations officer with the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority (WDBA), the opening brought relief after years spent working toward the milestone. “Now it does feel real,” she said. “This is a day that we have been looking forward to for so long. This morning, waking up, it felt real.” Grondin joined the project in 2005, first working on its environmental assessment with Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation. She said the opening gave her an opportunity to think back on the many stages required to reach Monday. “It’s a really great opportunity for me personally to reflect on those milestones, on the people who contributed to those, and really think about how far we’ve come to get to this point today.” The emotion of the day had not fully arrived when Grondin spoke with CTV News in the minutes leading up to the opening — but she expected it would. “I haven’t started to cry yet today, but I’m sure it’s going to come at some point,” she said. “There’s just so much excitement amongst the team who have worked on this. I am so personally excited to see those first cars go across. It’ll be a sense of relief, but also a real sense of joy.” A legacy built to last Grondin said the team also understands the bridge will outlast everyone who helped build it. “This bridge will be in place for 125 years. Much longer than any of us will be here,” she said. “This is a legacy that we that we carry and that we’re very proud to carry.” Behrens expects the view from the bridge to help deliver the experience he envisioned. “At the halfway point of the peak it opens up — the cables on the left and right — and you can look out and see the Detroit River and downtown, and you can then drive down on the other side,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a quite a magic moment.”
