Canadian Bridge plaza, Sault Ste. Marie: first facelift for International Bridge Plaza in more than 50 years.ge .

AuthorBerti, Liam
PositionTop Infrastructure Projects

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...

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