Various causes are being blamed for chronic truck backups through city streets in Sarnia over the past several months, with police issuing a cascade of violations.
Local police have laid almost 200 Highway Traffic Act violations so far this year, up 600% from the first seven months of 2024. That’s for sign disobedience. They’ve also laid almost 150 charges for truckers being on non-designated truck routes or lacking permits, a local bylaw offence. The first violation carries a $110 fine and the second $490.
The trucks have descended on city streets to skirt kilometers-long backups on Hwy. 402 westbound heading to the Blue Water Bridge and the U.S. It’s uncertain what’s causing the backups, but officials suggest it could be tighter border enforcement on the American side as well as a toll increase for trucks at the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor and Detroit, 108 km away. And there has been construction along Hwy. 402 itself, reducing the number of lanes.
Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley said this past weekend trucks were backed up as far as 20 km along Hwy. 402.
“So, what will happen is some of the truckers will go off onto the streets to try and get around it,” he said. They’ll divert through city streets and partially along east-west Exmouth St., a commercial strip that runs parallel south of Hwy. 402.
“And I hear from truckers that they’re not happy when their peer group does that,” he said.
Bradley said “there doesn’t seem to be a lot of enforcement,” by the OPP and MTO. That’s different from Sarnia police who have been enforcing on city streets.
Bradley said the errant truckers are “trying to get around the lineups and get to Front St., which is the last overpass before the Blue Water Bridge.”
One backup he personally witnessed: “There’s two lanes of traffic with truckers and cars stuck in the lineup and then people are trying to get on the gravel beside it to bypass and there’s some pretty dangerous situations when they do that.”
The mayor wrote the Ministry of Transportation in late July saying it needs “to take control.”
This matter has been “off and on” over the years, Bradley added. But it has been particularly pronounced since the beginning of this year. And, ironically, “at a time when our car and truck traffic has decreased significantly to the U.S., the issues in Sarnia have gone up.”
The problem is on westbound lanes and not eastbound traffic heading towards London.
He said what’s added to the problem is MTO traffic monitoring cameras “have been down for a few months.” And temporary signs indicating backup times “never seem to reflect what the reality is.”
The ministry, by email, said Hwy. 402 has been reduced to one lane at “Rapids Parkway bridge as it is required to complete the remaining construction in strict adherence with safety standards.”
It added “recent sign adjustments have been made to help improve the flow and capacity” of traffic and MTO aims to “accelerate construction to try to minimize the overall timing and impact of the lane closures.”
Carrie McCracken, CEO of the Sarnia-Lambton Chamber of Commerce, said she just has to look out her window “to see how bad it’s gotten.” She said local businesses are fed up with the trucks interfering with local traffic.
“It’s creating operational challenges for some of our local businesses,” she said. “We’ve got delayed shipments, missed delivery windows, reduced customer traffic in those affected areas.”
Staff Sgt. Jim McCabe of Sarnia Police said the backups have been “more than we can keep up with.”
He said there is no general ban on trucks. “Trucks are allowed in the city as long as they have permits, like if they’re dropping off groceries or car parts.”
The main problem is trucks going on residential streets. Local construction is also pushing them on to “side streets” and it’s “pretty much a seven day a week thing.”
McCabe warned violations “may open the door for further investigations” such as vehicle safety violations or charges for carrying dangerous cargo. He said truckers’ attitudes when pulled over tend to be “more frustration that there are the long lineups and the delays.”
Another choke point is Michigan Ave. between Colborne and Indian roads, closed due to construction. “And they don’t know where to go so they either go left or right and that brings them through residential streets,” McCabe said.
An OPP spokeswoman said the force asks truckers “to be patient, plan ahead and factor in construction delays” in advance of any future police action.
The Ambassador Bridge, which didn’t respond to a comment request, charges $14 per axle with passes. The Blue Water Bridge charges a basic $7.
