The current focus of work on the new $5.7-billion Gordie Howe International is the design stage.
In 2018, the proponent, Bridging North America, was picked to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the new crossing over the Detroit River.
On October 5, 2018, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Windsor to officially break ground on construction.
Spokesperson Heather Grondin says the focus of the project now shifts to the design phase which is 30% complete on the four components of the project, the bridge, the Canadian and U.S port of entries and the Michigan Interchange.
Grondin says the design phase will continue into 2020 but the design does not need to be at 100% to allow crews to start construction.
"A lot of preparatory work needs to begin, so utility surveys, utilities relocation work, site clearing, fence installation, a lot of pre-construction activities and those activities do relate quite a bit to the port work itself," she says.
She adds 2019 marks the beginning of prep work for the new crossing, saying "we do have some interesting work that will be coming up specifically to the bridge, which is the installation of test piles and other geotechnical exploration which is specific to the bridge foundations and the purpose of that is to test for soil conditions."
The survey for the Community Benefits Plan is still open and Grondin encourages people to fill it out before it is presented to the public in April.