Sarnia police are seeing more heavy trucks illegally cutting through the city since a closure at the Blue Water Bridge took effect earlier this month.
Cst. Allison Knapp said infractions have historically been an issue whenever bridge-bound traffic on Highway 402 is backed up past Modeland Road.
Knapp said these large trucks that aren't designed for residential streets create damage to the city's infrastructure, which can be costly.
"For example, the pole at Exmouth Street and Christina Street has been struck or knocked over too many times to count," she said. "The trees, stoplights and wires that hang low in the city also undergo damage when trucks that aren't authorized on those roads try to use them."
The U.S. bound span of the bridge was closed to traffic for rehabilitation work July 5 and it's not expected to reopen until approximately October 5.
"Since the bridge closure, the highway has been backed up almost everyday now, so this initially increased the infractions," said Knapp. "However, with the news coverage enforcement that has been done in the last couple of months the message does seem to be spreading effectively, and even [Monday] with the bridge backup, we didn't have many trucks trying to come through."
Knapp said it's important for police to have a zero-tolerance approach to prevent drivers from jumping the truck lineup for the border.
"If a driver believes they won't be stopped or penalized, they're more likely to take that chance of driving through the city," she said. "They're allowed in the city if they're making a commercial pickup or delivery but they have to take the shortest most direct route to and from that location."
Knapp said commercial drivers caught cutting through the city can be fined upwards of $365 -- a $110 fine for a disobeyed sign and/or a $255 sign for heavy truck in restricted area under the City of Sarnia bylaw.
Knapp said local truck drivers are rarely the issue.
"The majority of drivers are in compliance and do wait in line as needed, so the few that try to circumvent the line need to be identified and dealt with," she said.
Over the past few weeks, Sarnia Police Service has shared three separate incidents to social media involving commercial vehicles illegally cutting through the city.