WINDSOR – The CEOs of the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority and Bridging North America offered a brief update Tuesday morning on the Gordie Howe Intertnational Bridge project construction.

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Posted by Gordie Howe International Bridge on Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Officials announced last year that the bridge project will cost about $4.4 billion. The bridge is expected to open by 2024. Renderings show what the cable-stayed, or dual-column, bridge will look like, according to the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority.

Rendering of the Gordie Howe International Bridge from the WDBA.

The expected life span of the bridge is 125 years. The Canadian government is financing the deal, and tolls will pay the tab over time.

Dwight Duncan, chair of the WDBA Board of Directors, strongly defended the plans and the costs last year.

"This is actually very good value for the money," Duncan said.

Officials said the Gordie Howe International Bridge will be the largest cable-stayed bridge in North America when it’s finished.

It will have six lanes as well as bicycle and pedestrian lanes, and will be able to accept hazardous waste, unlike the Ambassador Bridge, officials said.

The bridge is expected to create 2,500 jobs, and about the same will open on both sides of the Detroit River.

Duncan said 7,000 trucks go back and forth at the crossing each day, and he expects that traffic will increase once the new bridge is operating.