Photo courtesy of Jim Bloch. The Blue Water Bridge, seen here six months before the start of the pandemic.
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MDOT: Blue Water Bridge Plaza rebuild on track in Port Huron

By Jim Bloch

Redesigning and reconstructing the Blue Water Bridge Plaza — the second busiest commercial and fourth busiest overall vehicle crossing point into Canada — is no easy matter, involving hundreds of millions of dollars, as well as the sometimes conflicting needs of city, state and federal entities and agencies.

“The purpose of the project is to provide for the safe, efficient, and secure movement of people and goods across the Canadian‐U.S. border in the Port Huron area to support the economies of Michigan, Ontario, Canada, and the United States,” said Carrie Warren, senior project manager for MDOT’s Blue Water Bridge Plaza expansion project.

Warren updated the Port Huron City Council at its regular meeting July 10 on the plaza reconstruction project.

“It will also support the mobility and security needs associated with national and civil defense,” Warren said.

Originally proposed in 2002, funding shortfalls in the wake of the Great Recession of 2008-2009 derailed the reconstruction. Now a new, smaller project is in the works; the expansion of the plaza has shrunk by about 25 percent.

The existing plaza is 56 acres. The 2009 plan called for a 109 acre plaza. The new plan is for 82 acres. The new footprint is roughly bounded by Hancock Street to the north, Pine Grove Avenue to the east, Scott Avenue to the south and the southbound entry road to I-94 to the west.

Benefits

Photo courtesy of MDOT.
A 3-D look at the proposed BWB plaza expansion.

The city, its residents and bridge users will see a dozen benefits from the project, said Warren.

The redesign will improve bridge operations and processing capability by using the latest technologies and procedures; improve security; provide facilities to make sure cars and trucks do not leave the plaza without being inspected; improve safety on the bridge, plaza and I-94/I-69 corridor by eliminating traffic weaves; accommodate projected traffic growth through 2045; minimize traffic backups in the U.S. and Canada; reduce car/truck conflicts in the plaza; improve access to the plaza and to local roads; and improve infrastructure conditions along the I-69/I-94 corridor.

Projections from SEMCOG suggest very modest traffic increases on the bridges through 2045.

“We’re expanding to the north and south, starting with the south, relocating duty free, relocating the tolling operation and then moving to the north later,” said Warren. “There will be new facilities for the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration, expanded staff and visitor parking and additional Customs and Border Protection security. Traffic flow will be enhanced throughout.”

The main traffic goal will be the maximum separation tolls and the outbound primary inspection lanes. Tolling will be speeded up with improved software. There will be safer access to the duty free store and clearer, more intuitive traffic paths through the plaza. There will be about a quarter mile of additional space for traffic in the plaza, which Warren hopes will eliminate traffic backups.

Environmental impacts

“The National Environmental Policy Act drives everything on this project,” Warren said. “It’s important this is done correctly.”

The Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision were completed in 2009. MDOT reevaluated both given the long lapse between their drafting and the start of the project. The department concluded that the EIS was still valid for the project. Early in July, the Federal Highway Administration concurred.

“The meat of the reevaluation is noise,” said Warren. “We put receptors in all the places where infrastructure is moving closer. Along the south side by Scott Avenue and the west side along the existing connection to the freeways, it is getting noisier.”

The noise is intense enough to require sound barriers.

“So we’ve included those in the project,” said Warren. “We will be conducting a process later in the year where the affected residents will be able to vote (on the kinds of barriers they’d like to see).”

The project is not expected to increase traffic volume, which means the air quality is unlikely to get worse. A multi-agency workgroup concluded that the project is not one “of air quality concern.”

Construction noise will be minimized by the use of mufflers, shields and equipment that meets noise level standards. Temporary vibration impacts as a result of pile driving will be minimized by scheduling and other means.

Twenty-seven sites have been identified as contaminated within and next to the project. MDOT is testing the sites to develop mitigation strategies.

The schedule

The smaller footprint of the new design means that 16 commercial properties will have to be acquired by the state, down from 30.

“We still have to acquire the Comfort Inn, the Port Huron Lanes and the Duty Free America store,” Warren said. “The first two will be deferred. Those are for a later stage of the project. We still have not completed our agreements with Customs and Border Protection. We’re building the south side of the project with independent utility, meaning it can stand alone indefinitely, if it must. We hope that soon CBP will make the commitment they need to make to allow us to move forward confidently with the north side.”

MDOT expects to begin work on the $40 million Component 1 of the project next May — the I-94/I-69 ramp to Pine Grove, the noise walls, the intersection at Pine Grove and 10th Ave., Scott Ave. landscaping, and the reconstruction of eastbound I-94 at the MDOT maintenance building.

Component 2, at about $160 million, is the rest of the south side of the existing project, with construction expected to begin in early 2025 and continue into 2026 — MDOT equipment storage building, MDOT admin building, toll booths, duty free, CBP Outbound building, CBP Outbound inspection booths, tunnel, walls, bridge structures and associated parking, westbound I-94 ramp, plaza exit and entrance ramps.

Components 3 and 4, the center and north side of the plaza, are contingent on the agreements with CBP. The work includes the demolition of existing buildings, new CBP main building, new primary inspection lanes, hazmat facilities, among other things.

To review documents about the project, visit https://www.michigan.gov/mdot/projects-studies/studies/environmentally-cleared-projects/blue-water-bridge-plaza-expansion.

Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, Michigan. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com. 

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