On 27 July, one of the biggest infrastructure undertakings in North America opens - the Gordie Howe bridge, connecting Windsor in Canada and Detroit in the US, across the busiest land border crossing on the continent.

Goods worth hundreds of millions of dollars pass through the Windsor-Detroit corridor every day, so the new bridge isn't just concrete and steel - it's the lifeline of an entire economy. It's meant to reinforce supply chains and ease the flow of freight between the two countries.

The financing arrangement is interesting too. Canada covered the entire cost of construction, and Ottawa will collect tolls until it recovers the investment - only after that does Michigan get half the net profit. When one country pays for everything and the other splits the profit later, that tells you who actually believed in the project.

The politicians, of course, are sharing the credit. Canada's infrastructure minister spoke of "partnership and years of planning", Michigan's governor of the "thousands of workers who built the bridge", and Trump, as usual, of how he secured "a much better deal for America". One bridge, three versions of whose it is. At least in the end someone will get to cross it - which is more than can be said for a lot of old infrastructure projects closer to home.