$17M Oversized Load Corridor officially opens in Sarnia

Officials in Sarnia are celebrating the official opening of the Oversized Load Corridor (OLC).

OLC Project Manager Lyle Johnson looked east along Exmouth Street from the Sarnia Harbour property, noting how wide open the view is with everything along or over the road removed or pushed back, "All of the wires, cables and interferences along the road allow that flow to go through without any interference."

It's a change most probably wouldn't notice, but what Lyle Johnson sees looking along this stretch of Exmouth is a path to greater opportunities with less disruptions.

It was around this time last year that some significant strategizing had to take place to get four large new beer vats to the Labatt brewery in downtown London.

Teams of London Hydro workers and other agencies worked to temporarily move utility lines and signal lights. The process was slow and created a few travel headaches for commuters.

Those vats arrived by ship and were unloaded in Sarnia. Dealing with loads like this is a common occurrence in that city.

They created the OLC to better deal with large items travelling between the Sarnia Harbour dock and Chemical Valley business. Johnson said planners had specific requirements they needed to accommodate, “A load that was 30ft high, 30ft wide, and 150ft long."

The Oversized Load Corridor is a 27 kilometer stretch that allows easier movement of large items, seen on Nov. 1, 2024. (Gerry Dewan/CTV News London)

One of the innovations for the 27-kilometer corridor was creating traffic light standards that pivot at their base, "That allows the crews just to pull a pin, rotate them 90 degrees out of the way, let the load go through and then rotate them back. Put the pin back in and restore traffic within minutes once when the load goes through."

Chemical Valley fabricators manufacture large vessels that are used around the world. A journey from business to dock that may have taken 10 to 12 hours, will now take as little as 90 minutes.

That also greatly reduces costs, allowing manufactures to offer more competitive pricing. They've also greatly expanded the area off Sarnia Harbour dock that is part of the OLC and Johnson said the dock has been designed to allow easier and safer loading and unloading, "A load that comes on a carrier can go directly onto a barge straight from, grade level."

The project took almost six years to complete at a cost of approximately $17 million. Funding came from both levels of senior government. It also included a $4 million contribution from education group Cestar, which now has its name on the dock where the OLC meeting the St. Clair River.