Officials with the Federal Bridge Corporation say coordinated efforts with partners, including local police services, have helped with traffic flow during this summer's bridge rehabilitation project.
Bridge Director Joe Dedecker provided an update on the project during a recent Village of Point Edward council meeting.
He said lessons were learned from last year's construction project on the First Blue Water Bridge.
"We had significant traffic delays and issues mostly caused by traffic," he said. "We spent the first two to three weeks of the project adding signs and other traffic devices to deal with the chaos. … Once we got through that point, traffic tended to move better through the plaza but by that point in time, truck traffic had diverted to the Ambassador Bridge."
Dedecker said traffic declined at the Blue Water Bridge which was a "significant revenue hit" considering volumes have yet to bounce back to pre-pandemic levels.
"One month into [this year's] project, we're seeing traffic volumes at or higher than where we would expect them to be. So if anything, truck traffic is higher than we saw it last year," he said. "Car traffic is at about 75 to 76 per cent pre-COVID traffic numbers so while it doesn't help the revenue, it certainly helps us."
During his presentation to council, Dedecker credited stakeholders for managing traffic flow. He said the Canada Border Services Agency brought in 15 additional staff to help during this year's bridge project.
Dedecker also said the Ministry of Transportation, Lambton OPP, and Sarnia Police Service have helped with traffic enforcement to ensure vehicles remain in their proper lane.
"Their enforcement actually allowed us to open, what we would call 'a local lane' which is a lane on the very right, so if you continue down the highway you can continue right down to the toll booth. The highway lane rebuilt 12 years ago was actually designed with that purpose in mind but there was never the ability to keep traffic in the lane. The enforcement that actually occurred between those three agencies last year allowed us to open it and continue to run it today as it was meant to be. It has significantly improved local traffic flow for car traffic across the border, at least U.S. bound."
Dedecker said they haven't seen significant traffic back-ups on Highway 402 this year like they had during last year's construction project.