Next Steps in Easing Cross-Border Commerce

As participants in City & State’s recent New York–Canada Summit in Buffalo discussed, the Peace Bridge linking Buffalo with Fort Erie, Ontario, facilitates more than $40 billion in commerce between Canada and the United States every year, including $9.1 billion in yearly business sales for the Buffalo Niagara region.

It was especially alarming, therefore, when a cross-border spat last year over planned improvements at the Peace Bridge border crossing nearly erupted into a full-blown international incident, with several New York State officials calling for an end to the 87-year-old Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge (the Peace Bridge) Authority.

Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed, and work began to go forward on several construction projects intended to move traffic both on and off the bridge and the U.S. plaza more rapidly.

Last October the first phase of the Authority’s $13 million U.S. Approach Widening Project was completed, and the second and final phase is expected to be finished by the end of this year. The project widens the deck at the U.S. end of the bridge, clearing the way for U.S.-bound cars to get around the trucks that often back up onto the bridge as they wait to enter inspection booths. The completed project will facilitate traffic flow and alleviate congestion on the existing plaza by providing better NEXUS lane access, adding queuing space for passenger vehicles, and separating auto and commercial traffic.

Other projects include the modernization of the U.S. Customs commercial inspection facility located on the plaza’s footprint. Last spring work began to renovate and expand the building so as to ease secondary inspection backups and make the structure more energy-efficient.

The next phase of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Cargo Pre-inspection Pilot program began in February. (The first phase of the pilot was conducted last year at the Blaine, Wash.–Surrey, British Columbia, border crossing.) For the second phase, commercial trucks with transponders entering the U.S. can use a pre-inspection commercial primary booth on the Canadian side. While there, CBP officers conduct radiation screening and primary cargo processing. Any secondary inspection, if needed, is conducted when trucks reach the U.S. side. The pilot is testing the impact in Canada of pre-inspection on wait times, border congestion and trade facilitation. The Buffalo–Fort Erie pilot has the opportunity to continue through at least February 2015, and will hopefully become permanent.

In September the state of New York signed a $56.2 million construction contract for its own Gateway Connections project, aimed at increasing traffic flow and commerce between New York and Canada by improving connections between the Niagara Thruway (I-190) and the Peace Bridge. A new ramp from the bridge plaza to I-190 will provide more direct access for vehicles heading to the Niagara Thruway and destinations beyond. It will also remove Baird Drive from Front Park in Buffalo, replacing it with a new access point for local traffic, eliminating confusing and hazardous traffic patterns on the plaza that have inbound and outbound traffic crossing paths and allowing for the restoration of the Frederick Law Olmsted designed Front Park. The project is currently slated for completion in May 2017.

After two decades of failed plans marked by lawsuits, delays, disappointment and finger-pointing, it is a relief to finally have some pieces of good news to report about the Peace Bridge. Both sides must continue to work together to ensure that trade and commerce can flourish and expand once all of these projects are completed. Fewer tie-ups on the bridge allow for more trade to come over the border; more trade means more jobs; and more jobs mean a stronger economy.