SICE has been awarded the contract to provide the ITS and Fiber Optic for the Gordie Howe International Bridge in Windsor, Canada and Detroit, USA.
The Gordie Howe International Bridge when completed, will be the longest cable-stayed bridge in North America. This will create a new international crossing between USA and Canada on one of the busiest border crossing points.
The Gordie Howe International Bridge is a new six-lane bridge across the Detroit River between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan, with associated border inspection plazas. It is being managed as a Public Private Partnership (30-year concession). The client, WDBA, is a Canadian Crown corporation that works in close collaboration with international agencies and stakeholders including the City of Windsor, Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), and the Ontario Ministry of Transportation from Canada and City of Detroit, US Custom Border Protection (CBP) and the Michigan Department of Transportation from USA.
SICE will work in the following locations: the Bridge, the Canadian Port of Entry (POE), located in Windsor, Canada and the US Port of Entry (POE) located in Detroit, USA. The new Bridge’s length will be approximately 2.5 kilometers. The design provides six-lanes, three Canadian-bound and three US-bound. There will also be a dedicated multi-use path that will accommodate pedestrians and cyclists.
SICE will provide head end equipment and fiber optic cables which will be deployed to connect both ports of entry at the crossing. Among the different functional areas of the ITS, the followings stand out: Traffic Surveillance, Lane Streaming, Traveller Information Dissemination through DMS and Connected Vehicle systems, Travel time and border wait time calculation, Incident Detection and Incident Response and Management.
The project is completed with the Canadian and US POE which consist in an area with border inspection facilities for both passenger and commercial vehicles. Vehicles will be classified at they enter the project from Canada and the USA according to the FHWA classification. This will provide critical information for border crossing data as well as information for the different agencies within the site.
There are two border control agencies: CBSA in Canada and CBP in USA, which presents a challenge for SICE as close collaboration and coordination needs to happen to keep up to their standards. Besides, toll collection facilities are in the Canadian POE.
