Blue Water Bridge construction delays causing havoc for travellers, truckers, residents, and police

It didn’t take long for Sarnia police to catch a transport truck driver cutting through the city to avoid the long wait at the Blue Water Bridge.

“The lineups at the bridge and some of those delays are resulting in more commercial vehicles coming into the community,” said Julie Craddock, deputy chief of Sarnia Police Services.

With construction on Blue Water Bridge, and only lane available, truck lineups are reaching up to ten kilometres.

Some truckers are trying to avoid the delay by using Exmouth Street or Michigan Avenue in Sarnia and Point Edward, but when caught, the punishment is a fine and an escort out of town.

“If they are stopped, then they will be redirected back to the end of the line and really, it's just going to add an extension onto that they're already dealing with,” said Craddock.

When they drive into the city, safety becomes an issue. Traffic bollards were placed at the corner of Exmouth and Christina Streets, but within days, they had been hit. A week later, were nearly knocked over by trucks trying to turn right.

Sarnia police are not only ticketing truck drivers cutting through the city to avoid the Highway 402 delays, but are also escorting them out of the city (Brent Lale/CTV News London)

On Monday at noon, trucks were backed up nearly six kilometres from the bridge to Murphy Road.

“It all depends on the time of day,” said trucker Larry Feeney, who was making a run to Kentucky. “You might get lucky and it only takes maybe an hour, or else you're going to get jammed up and it takes sometimes three [hours].”

Most drivers we spoke with at a truck stop were doing mileage-based runs, so there is no extra pay for overtime.

“When your wheels are running you're making money, but if you're waiting, that's waiting for nothing,” said trucker Sarabgit Singh.

When the trucks are at a standstill on the highway, it is causing concerns for those in Point Edward, who can’t access the off-ramps.

“We've worked with the OPP and they're doing extra patrolling on the highway to make sure that that is being maintained,” said Bev Hand, mayor of Point Edward. “For a car to get off into a local access lane, they're blocking in some cases.”

Sarnia police have been ticketing truck drivers who are trying to cut around lines on Highway 402 by driving through the city. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)

Vehicles coming into Canada from Port Huron, Michigan, are not facing long waits, but officials believe it is less likely people will want to visit if they can't get back home easily.

Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley wonders why they didn't do all the construction work on the bridge immediately after the pandemic when travel was down.

“They waited until we're up and running when places like Sarnia, London, Stratford and Niagara Falls are trying to get their tourism business back up again, and we have to deal with this now,” said Bradley. “In border towns like Sarnia, it’s just a natural rite of passage to go back and forth often, sometimes three or four times a week. This has made it much more difficult and that hurts Port Huron’s economy too.”

The bridgework and lane reductions will continue into October. One trucker believes that timeframe could be reduced with more man-hours on the project.

“When I came from U.S. to Canada, I saw only a few people working on the bridge,” said trucker Surinder Singh. “They don't seem to have fast workers to finish it faster.”

Trucks were backed up six kilometers from the bridge in Sarnia, Ont. by 12 p.m. on July 24, 2023, due to construction. (Brent Lale/CTV News London).