Cathy Dobson/The Independent

Community leaders are pushing for a solution to hours-long backups on Highway 402 this summer as some say congestion approaching the Blue Water Bridge has never been worse.

“A lot of drivers are coming in really grumpy after sitting there for a couple of hours,” said Gerry Lee, operations manager at the Blue Water Bridge Duty Free Shop in Point Edward.

“There’s no question we need solutions and we need the traffic to run efficiently,” he said.  “We were hoping for a good summer and now our worry is that our bridge will get a reputation as a congested crossing.  That is not good for us.”

Business at the duty free is impacted when drivers are delayed because they no longer want to take time to shop, he said.

Both Lee and officials with the Federal Bridge Corp., which operates the Blue Water Bridge, say this summer’s unprecedented highway congestion is not a result of a problem at the bridge. 

“There are lots of lanes open and truck drivers say it’s not paperwork at the border or anything like that causing the problem,” said Lee.

Instead, they blame road construction that started in the spring and funnels highway traffic down to one lane just east of Modeland Road.

“We’ve seen slowdowns before but what’s different now is that it’s creating a bottleneck for cars and trucks,” said Lee.  Once traffic reaches construction at Modeland Road, cars and trucks are forced into a single lane. For months, regular backups have formed all the way to Blackwell and Airport roads, making it impossible for local traffic to reach the local lane that starts just before Murphy Road and allows for faster westbound travel.

If local drivers see a backup but don’t reach the lane designed for local traffic only, they will be stuck in lineups potentially for hours, says Point Edward Mayor Bev Hand.

“Our truck traffic has been up ahead of Windsor’s for the past four to five months, and that’s adding to the congestion,” Hand said.  In fact, the Federal Bridge Corp. confirmed that commercial traffic crossing the Blue Water Bridge from Canada was up 20 per cent in June compared to June 2024. 

When truck traffic began heavily increasing in early spring, Point Edward’s Police Services Board requested more highway presence from the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) and from OPP, said Hand.

“It seemed to help for a while but then construction started,” she said. “People need to be careful when they travel the highway.  In fact, I tell them to avoid it altogether and take a different route.”

This week, the village’s police board sent a letter to various bodies, including the MTO, MP Marilyn Gladu, MPP Bob Bailey and the Blue Water Bridge, to work together to find a solution to the backups.

“We need to find a solution to the delays,” said Hand.  “We are looking for ideas for improvement because no one seems to have any.” 

The MTO has not confirmed a date when construction will be finished although it has indicated roadwork will be complete this year.

Meanwhile, Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley says he’s concerned about commercial traffic rerouting through city streets.  He’s also wondering why construction work doesn’t appear to occur on the weekend but traffic is still limited to a single lane at Modeland Road.

“The irony is that car traffic is significantly down but we are still suffering,” Bradley said.  “I really feel for the duty free store. This is unacceptable.”

He also wrote a letter this week to the MTO and OPP requesting more highway traffic enforcement.

“Sarnia police are doing their part dealing with traffic that reroutes onto city streets,” Bradley said.  “But I want to see more enforcement on the highway.”

Passenger car traffic going into the U.S. has been down about 20 per cent since talk of American tariffs began in early 2025.  That’s also a blow to the duty free business, said Lee.

“We believe construction should be expedited.  We’ve got to get it done as fast as possible,” he said.  “And we think better traffic management in the construction area would keep traffic flowing.

“Once cars get past the bottleneck on Modeland Road, they can get to the local car lane and move quite easily.

“Once you reach the bridge, it’s okay,” Lee said.