Ontario Border Improvements - Fort Erie

The Peace Bridge crossing is located between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, New York.

The Peace Bridge is Canada's third busiest crossing for trade; it carries nearly 3,600 trucks per day with a daily commodity value of $147 million.

The Peace Bridge is Ontario's and Canada's second busiest crossing between Ontario and the US in terms of total traffic, handling 19,100 vehicles per day in 2004.

More than 6.6 million passenger vehicles and almost 1.4 million commercial vehicles cross the bridge annually.

The Peace Bridge carried 10% of Canada's international truck traffic and 15% of Ontario's trade activity by truck in 2004.

Owner/Operator: Owned and Operated by Buffalo & Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority

FAST/NEXUS: Both programs are available at the Peace Bridge crossing.

Improvements

Ontario is partnering under the BIF initiative with the federal government on four other Niagara area projects valued at $115 million relating to the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge and QEW along the frontier in northern Niagara, including:

• adding of a fifth lane to the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge
• construction of a lane for pre-cleared truck traffic on Highway 405 accessing the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge
• widening of the QEW from four to six lanes between Highway 406 and the Garden City skyway through St. Catharines
• widening of the QEW from four to six lanes between Mountain Road and Glendale Avenue.

Ontario is finalizing a joint Bi-National Strategy with New York State that will formalize processes for addressing border related issues in Niagara.

Ontario supports the Peace Bridge pilot project to examine enhancements to border processing under the concept of shared border management. (The pilot project is currently under way by US and Canadian federal governments in partnership with the Peace Bridge Authority.)

The Province supports the Peace Bridge's current environmental study process to examine alternatives to improve this important border crossing, and views the expansion at the existing location as a preferred alternative given its direct connection to the existing terminus of the QEW.