'Extraordinarily exciting': Mini Gordie Howe bridge gets new home at UWindsor's faculty of engineering

Desmond Brown · CBC News

· Posted: Jul 17, 2025 8:02 PM EDT | Last Updated: 8 minutes ago

Students and module of the University of Windsor's Faculty of Engineering connected Thursday celebrated years of partnerships with the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, unveiling a elaborate standard exemplary of the Gordie Howe International Bridge that volition beryllium displayed successful the engineering building. 

Bill Van Heyst, dean of the module of engineering, says the sculpture is much than a display, adding that it symbolizes years of effort, pupil engagement, and determination impact. 

"This is extraordinarily breathtaking for america present successful engineering due to the fact that it represents a culmination of a concern with the Windsor Detroit-Bridge Authority," Van Heyst said.  

"They've hired truthful galore of our co-op students, they've been participating successful talks with our students, serving connected panels, inspiring our students to deliberation big. 

"When you look astatine these models, they're not tiny Lego models that we're talking about, this is simply a large task and I deliberation it's truly important for students," added Van Heyst.

The 1:750-scale exemplary was created by the Windsor Detroit-Bridge Authority and volition present service arsenic an acquisition centrepiece wrong the module of engineering.

Van Heyst said portion the students did not person overmuch enactment with gathering the model, they've been actively progressive with the existent span task in their co-op placements.

Those interactions "vary from doing structural investigation connected antithetic parts. From the engineering position it's the transportation, the logistics of however you determination things backmost and distant crossed the border, the staging areas … they did safety.

"Some of the non-engineering students would beryllium looking astatine the economics, the concern models, biology assessments," Van Heyst said. 

Mariah Saad, who's presently finishing her 3rd twelvemonth of civilian engineering studies, is 1 of the students who did her co-op placement with the span project. 

"Being a portion of it, particularly arsenic a student, is conscionable truthful incredible," she said. 

"We larn things successful the classroom, and past erstwhile you really get to spot it successful existent life, a monolithic infrastructure project, it's perfectly incredible, and getting to spot however antithetic radical enactment together, antithetic teams each collaborate and unite unneurotic toward a communal extremity and execute astonishing things, it's outstanding."

Saad, who worked with the operations team, says she looks guardant to telling aboriginal generations astir her input connected the project.

"That's similar the champion feeling of it. It's like, I volition beryllium capable to thrust by the span and, successful possibly 50 to 60 years, I tin accidental I had an interaction connected that," she said.

The span authority, which manages the Gordie Howe International Bridge task for the Canadian government, has hosted much than 240 co-op students from Ontario institutions crossed assorted fields, including engineering, business, and machine science, according to UWindsor.

Construction of the $6.4-billion Gordie Howe International Bridge, which began successful October 2018 aft readying phases dating backmost to 2001, is nearing completion and is slated to beryllium finished by September 2025. Since breaking ground, the task has employed astir 13,550 workers.

Once completed, it is expected to heighten cross-border question by reducing congestion, make jobs, and boost determination tourism. The 2.4-kilometre crossing volition beryllium the longest cable-stayed span successful North America and among the 10 longest bridges connected the continent.