International Bridge takes its toll.

• Author: Ross, Ian

If Sault Ste. Marie's multi-modal transportation concept ever becomes reality, International Bridge general manager Phil Becker would be all for it.

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Then there would likely be millions of government dollars for more bridge inspection lanes, better security features and maybe even swipe-card technology for speedier crossings.

While the federal and provincial governments are investing to upgrade border crossings at Windsor, Sarnia and Niagara Falls, very little has changed at the International Bridge since the 4.5 kilometre span opened in 1962.

Since the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security poured more concrete and installed more cameras for its inspection stations, but it wasn't designed to handle massive volumes of international cargo that a Canadian Sault task force would like to attract.

The booming global logistics market has container ports, intermodal yards and major Canada-U.S. border crossings stretched beyond capacity. Sault Ste. Marie wants to siphon off some of that traffic.

Becker calls the Sault bridge facilities "totally outdated" and in "urgent need" of current technology updates, not only for better security but to attract commerce.

For years, transport trucks and American tourists exiting the Canadian bridge plaza were either dumped into a busy residential neighbourhood or left to thread through the city's maze of one-way streets to the Trans-Canada Highway or local attractions.

Last fall, when Ontario Transportation Minister Donna Cansfield opened the city's new truck route linking Highway 17 and Interstate 75 in Michigan, she called the Sault bridge the province's ninth busiest international crossing handling more than 130,000 commercial trucks annually and under 400 trucks a day.

But Becker says it's also easily the "poorest" bridge of all the crossings between Ontario, Michigan and New York state.

Truck traffic has been on the wane since 1993, when crossings peaked at 3.6 million. Trucks take up seven per cent of all traffic, but account for 50 per cent of bridge revenue.

Last year, truck crossings dropped six per cent from the previous year.

Most of that is attributed to a softening U.S. homebuilding market, stiffer border security measures and fewer American tourists travelling north.

Even local traffic has declined with the opening of a new Wal-Mart and a Canadian casino in recent years.

Like most toll facilities, the International Bridge gets no government subsidies for...