If you are at all familiar with the acronym DRIC, then you likely know that the Gordie Howe International Bridge has had somewhat of a long and storied history. Once commonly referred to in the industry as the Detroit River International Crossing or DRIC, this border crossing between Canada and the United States (U.S.) has been in the works for over 20 years.
Cross-border traffic studies and a rigorous regime of planning and environmental approvals processes began in 2000, but it wasn’t until July 30, 2014, that the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority (WDBA) began its first day of operation. The WDBA is the Canadian Crown corporation tasked with the delivery and operation of what has since become known as the Gordie Howe International Bridge —named after the Canadian hockey legend who led the Detroit Red Wings to four Stanley Cup victories.
The project truly is a once-in-a-generation undertaking that will provide much-needed transportation improvements at the busiest Canada-U.S. commercial border crossing. It is being delivered by WDBA through a public-private partnership with Bridging North America (BNA), the concessionaire who will design, build and finance the project, and operate and maintain the bridge for a 30-year period. BNA is a partnership of well-known infrastructure industry players ACS Infrastructure Canada, Aecon, Dragados and Fluor; as well as AECOM, BNA’s design lead.
“We’re pleased to have AECOM provide their design expertise and be one of the consortium companies building this landmark infrastructure project,” said Bruce Philip, CEO of WDBA.
This vital border crossing that will connect Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, Michigan is actually four significant infrastructure projects in one — the bridge, two major Ports of Entry (POE), and a complex interchange connecting the I-75 in Michigan. The six-lane bridge will be approximately 2.5km long, with a main span of 853m and direct connections to Highway 401 in Ontario and the I-75 and I-96 in Michigan. The bridge width accommodates future expansion to eight lanes and includes a multi-use path for pedestrians and cyclists.
Once complete, the Gordie Howe International Bridge will be the longest cable-stayed bridge in North America and will set the record for longest composite steel and concrete cable-stayed bridge deck in the world. Its Canadian POE with border inspection facilities, tolling operations, and maintenance facilities will be the largest along the Canada-U.S. border, and the U.S. POE will be one of the largest anywhere in North America.
As the BNA design lead, the AECOM team was responsible for more than 800 project managers, architects, planners, engineers, safety specialists, roadway experts, landscapers, interior designers, and other technical experts, as well as 30 sub-consultants spread across 60 offices on three continents — all working together to deliver more than 1,000 design submittals. The design was effectively managed and coordinated through the development of a strong suite of design management plans and procedures, real-time collaboration in a robust common data environment, and the effective use of digital innovation and generative design computation tools.
When the world came to a stop with COVID-19, AECOM’s global design team seamlessly implemented a remote working environment. With a focus on safeguarding staff while continuing to deliver, the latest cloud-based technology was used to facilitate virtual collaboration and effective document sharing.
AECOM’s strong behavior-based health and safety culture enabled the quick deployment of safety measures that allowed work to continue while complying with both countries’ project and public health requirements. The project’s robust risk management and other project-wide systems supported an immediate shift from 60 offices to over 800 home offices worldwide.
Global pandemic aside, the sheer magnitude of this project made collaboration and security particularly challenging. The fact that each country operates under its own units of measurement, design standards and specific federal security protocols added an additional layer of complexity in managing design teams and controlling access to sensitive project data.
A Common Data Environment (CDE) where references, software languages, and units of measure could be translated into a common digital language needed to be established as the main feed into one master model. This CDE also had to be agnostic and able to handle complicated software flows like geospatial data to ensure correct alignment and accurate placement of all project components.
After a series of discovery workshops, a decision to use Autodesk’s BIM360 and Bentley’s ProjectWise as paired collaboration platforms was made. The combination of these tools provided real time access to design component data and facilitated early issue tracking across the many teams, offices and countries. This timely capture of information enabled digital design reviews that allowed close monitoring of progress and the immediate identification of issues as they occurred. An escalation process was established to ensure problems were promptly addressed, and timely decisions were made with active participation from key stakeholders — keeping the design schedule on track.
The use of digital design reviews and coordination through advanced software workflows enabled significant efficiencies on the overall project including an estimated 25% time savings and a 20% reduction in potential design issues. This platform, founded on open standard workflows, sharing through common data environments and real time reviews, will be continued throughout the construction phase to establish as-built models, finalize as record model files for handover, and support future operations, maintenance and asset management. What’s more, a reduction of paper use and a 60% reduction in associated printing costs was achieved through the project’s digital workflows.
Computational design is a visual programming process whereby design decisions are scripted into a computer language that graphically represents the required steps to create desired design outcomes. On the Gordie Howe International Bridge project, generative computational design workflows were developed to facilitate complex design changes.
For example, as the curvature of the POE canopies were adjusted during the design phase, it created far reaching implications on other bridge elements such as the structural truss framing system designed to support them. By developing a computational workflow, the design team could run scripts to instantly and easily generate new design calculations to incorporate the revisions to the architectural canopy and recreate the truss framing. What could have been intensively laborious changes and repetitive design tasks were simplified through computational design —and potentially expensive calculation and design errors were avoided. On the complex design of the POE canopies, the team improved design time by 65% through the use of generative workflows.
Awards won by WDBA and others so far are too numerous to list here; suffice to say that the project’s communications, community engagement, environmental management and corporate social responsibility programs have been repeatedly recognized for their excellence and innovation by national and international associations alike.
As part of the project, WDBA developed a formal community benefits plan to advance economic, social and environmental conditions for nearby residents, Indigenous Peoples in Canada, business owners and community and municipal leaders. WDBA and its Michigan partners meaningfully engaged and empowered these communities in all stages of the Community Benefits Plan.
Working in partnership with WDBA and BNA, AECOM’s Environmental Management Team oversaw compliance with environmental obligations and generated an award-winning ISO 14000 certified Environmental Management System for use during design and construction. The team also developed and managed the Visual Quality Plan to create a modern and aesthetically pleasing user experience.
From an economic standpoint, not only will the bridge enable cross-border travel and the more efficient movement of goods and services, it also created jobs on both sides of the border. During construction, BNA estimates 2,500 overall jobs will be created. The project will also create significant future employment opportunities through the operation of the border crossing.
The success achieved in leveraging digital tools and workflows on this project have set an AECOM precedent on digital collaboration and the digital delivery of large-scale infrastructure projects.
The adoption of an intelligent BIM platform in a cloud-based collaborative environment removed physical boundaries and united an international project team as one cohesive unit. The result was a “just in time” environment that ensured all designers were always working on current design iterations. Seamless data transfer to the contractor was also achieved through an information-rich design intent model that not only guides construction, but can also inform future downstream operations, maintenance and repair decisions.
AECOM created a proven standard for the industry that demonstrates how secure cloud platforms foster global collaboration and design coordination. Design and data certainty were established using dozens of software titles within select technology stacks to deliver this highly complex project.
Construction on this massive bridge project is underway and is expected to be complete sometime in 2024. In the meantime, we at AECOM look forward to watching its progress and its ultimate delivery as one of North America’s most transformational infrastructure projects.
