First impressions are everything.
People make snap decisions within seconds of confronting something or someone, which is exactly the reason the Canadian Plaza at the end of the Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge is in the midst of an overhaul for the first time in more than 50 years.
The redevelopment of the plaza is part of a 15-year puzzle whose pieces are finally starting to come into play, creating a living, functioning site that benefits both sides of the bridge.
As the only vehicular international crossing between Ontario and Michigan within a 300-mile distance, the sister cities of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., and Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., owe a lot to what the bridge has allowed them to do and where they are going in the future.
At the end of October, the Bridge Authority officially opened the US$8.9 million toll plaza project on the Michigan side, which was completed in 16 months.
The new building and seven toll lanes replace a 53-year-old administration building and five-toll lane, which was part of the original design.
Construction crews on the Canadian side are now working in full force to get the Canadian Border Service Agency (CBSA) facility completed for March 2018.
“It’s never been truly redeveloped since then, so this is a major, major project and a very important one not only for the community, but for anyone using the crossing,” said Franco Pastore, principal director of architecture for Sault Ste. Marie-based design firm EPOH.
Phase one of the EPOH-designed overhaul included the construction of a duty-free building and maintenance garage, a stepping stone that cleared the way for phase two.
The ongoing project has been back underway since June, with general contractor EllisDon carrying out the comprehensive construction of EPOH’s design of the new CBSA facilities.
While its original completion date was pegged for last spring, and at a cost of roughly $44 million, estimates for the Gateways and Border Crossings-funded plaza has now risen to approximately $51.6 million after an additional $7.5 million was injected into the project in the spring of 2014 due to the time gap between the original announcement and the procurement of lands around the existing bridge plaza.
Pastore called the new plaza a $60-million two-part project, which is being managed by St. Mary’s River Bridge Company and Transport Canada.
“It’s intended to improve the crossing from a security point of view, from an efficiency of traffic processing point of view, and it incorporates all the latest technology and designed to current standards,” he explained.
The 4.5-kilometre bridge is entirely self-funded, mostly by tolls from the roughly 1.9 million vehicle trips that travel the three northbound and four southbound lanes on a yearly basis.
While only approximately six per cent of the of the bridge’s estimated 7,000 daily vehicle traffic comes from commercial vehicle traffic, it also generates in excess of 40 per cent of the toll revenue.
The plaza, which will occupy an entire city block, is also the all-important access point to Northern Ontario, eastern Ontario and northern Quebec, most notably.
As the largest international trade crossing in northwestern Ontario, the plaza is vital to the steel, paper and forest industries, not to mention the tourism and recreation uses as well.
And if the growth forecasts pan out the way they plan, commercial traffic will only increase, which is why Pastore and his team said a crucial component of their design involved in-depth traffic forecasts and building to the functional needs of the area for the next 20-30 years.
In accommodating those needs, the design calls for dedicated commercial traffic inspection facilities, dedicated truck routes directly to Carmen’s Way, adding a night lane for buses and widening the lanes at the bottom of the ramp to accommodate heavier demand.
In total, there will be seven primary inspection lanes: four for passenger vehicles, two bi-level lanes for cars and one dedicated truck lane.
“It’s also been designed to accommodate a greater flow of commercial traffic and, given that Sault Ste. Marie is positioning itself as a multi modal hub, we foresee a greater flow of commercial vehicles over the bridge,” Pastore explained.
Needless to say, the plaza plays an integral part in the flow of goods from abroad and across the border and is a pivotal piece of the strategic vision the city has in terms of job creation and economic growth in the area.
“We didn’t want the bridge and the two plazas to be the weakest link in that system, so when we designed this, we looked at the impact of increased commercial traffic flow and we made sure had built-in flexibility to deal with that,” Pastore added.
The design team has engineered a meticulous north-to-south implementation strategy for seamless transitions to maintain existing service levels while advancing the project on schedule. Altogether, there are eight micro stages within each phase.
“The biggest challenge is you can’t shut down an existing border crossing, so you have to transition this new project in such a manner to allow for the daily operations to continue with as little or minimal impact as possible,” said Pastore.
“This is the type of project we like to be involved in because it’s very challenging and takes a well-organized approach.”
Part of that comprehensive effort involves a large cohort of local tradespeople.
While no rough employment estimates were provided, Pastore said keeping the project as local as possible has had a myriad of positive impacts on the regional industry.
“The impact it’s going to have is quite significant, beginning with the entire design industry,” he said. “We’ve been on this project for quite some time and we have a lot of sub-consultants from the area.
“The construction will also have a big impact on local contractors and suppliers, so this is an essential piece of the local economy. It really has had a big local impact,” he added.
The design and construction team have also been in close consultation with the city, collaborating on spinoff projects like extending the multi-use John Rowswell Hub Trail and pedestrian walkway as part of the project cost.
“When you talk about smaller communities like Sault Ste. Marie, these projects are important pieces of the overall community, they have a magnified affect,” said Pastore.
