Re: bridges, was: Make It Make Sense

On 2025-06-19 2:57 p.m., danny burstein wrote:

In <1031k1k$dvf$3@dont-email.me> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> writes:
 

On 2025-06-19 1:21 PM, danny burstein wrote:

In <1031g9t$dvf$2@dont-email.me> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> writes:
[snip[
>

Certain border crossing points are also surprising. Windsor and Detroit
are separated by a river that basically runs north-south so when you
cross the border on either of the bridges or the tunnel, you are
travelling east to west when going from Windsor to Detroit, not
north-south as you would expect.

>
"either of the bridges"?????  Counting the days until Gordie Howe opens...

 

My mistake, I thought the Gordie Howe bridge had already opened.

 There are a bunch of overhead signs on Canada's (?401?) highway
approaching Windsor which are a combination of sheet metal on
the left and LED displays on the right.
 The printed side says (roughly, and in both English
and French [I'm just doing English])
 "Time to crossings:
"Tunnel:
"Ambassador Bridge:
"Gordie Howe Bridge:"
 And the LED side would have,
to just make up an example,
"10 minutes
"12 minutes
"11 minutes"
 Right now (well, a few weeks ago...) the
illuminted side simply said "testing".
 I've written to both the Ottowa minister
of highwys (or whatever his title is...)
and to the bridge authority office in
the States begging them to activate
the LEDs and have them display:
 

Roads and highways are a matter for the provincial government in Toronto, not the federal government in Ottawa. Mind you, there must be *some* federal involvement in the Gordie Howe bridge since it is a border crossing but I doubt it extends to signage....
You should try writing to the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) in Toronto.

"10 minutes
"12 minutes
"six months"
 

I saw a video a few months back showing the final spans of the bridge being joined in the middle and assumed from that that it would be a few weeks until the bridge was ready to use but it seems I was overoptimistic. Apparently, completion is set for September (2025) which traffic projected to begin a bit later in the fall. I can't find any more specific dates than that. I'm not sure why they'd wait more than a few days to actually operate the bridge after it was complete given that it would generate money immediately to start paying for itself.

Got a boiler plate response from the
bridge folk that they'd consider it.
 Nothing back from the Canadian minister...
 

Our federal civil service has grown by leaps and bounds under the past decade of Liberal (mis)management but they still don't do anything quickly....
--
Rhino