Blue Water Bridge tolls set to rise in April

Tolls on the Canadian side of the Blue Water Bridge are going up April 1 amid rising maintenance costs and a drop in revenue caused by a slow pandemic recovery, says the Crown corporation running the Canadian half of the international crossing.

Federal Bridge Corp. (FBCL), which owns the Canadian half of the two spans crossing the St. Clair River between the Sarnia area and Port Huron, Mich., said tolls for US-bound passenger vehicles paid by cash, debit or credit cards will rise from $5 to $6. Per-axle tolls for commercial vehicles also will go up from $5 to $6.

“Usually we increase the toll rates twice a year,” said FBCL’s Pomeline Martinoski. “However, due to the pandemic, we had not adjusted our toll rates since April 2021.”

The corporation is seeing “substantial reduced revenue due to the slow recovery from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic” and has “seriously depleted its reserves” since 2020 to maintain the crossing, it said in a release.

Most of the corporation’s revenue comes from tolls paid by bridge users.

“FBCL has, during this difficult period, managed its assets effectively to ensure the continuity of operations while maintaining debt payments and deferring non-critical expenses,” the release said.

While commercial traffic recovered quickly during the pandemic, passenger traffic at Canada’s second-busiest commercial land crossing dropped significantly due to pandemic restrictions on non-essential travel and has not completely recovered since they were lifted.

“Blue Water Bridge auto traffic volume is projected to still be down by 35 per cent this upcoming fiscal year,” Martinoski said.

The April 1 toll increase will be less for travelers using the bridge’s ConneXion automated toll system. It’s going from $4.25 for passenger vehicles to $4.50, the corporation said.

“We really want to encourage people to take advantage of the contactless ConneXion pre-paid toll program,” Martinoski said.

Under the program, bridge users set up an electronic account and tolls are deducted automatically when toll-lane antennas identify radio-frequency tags on users’ windshields.

The system improves efficiency at bridge toll booths, the corporation has said, and customers can use an app to manage their accounts

Martinoski said the tolling system was upgraded in September and commuter accounts with the system have increased by more than 13 per cent and commercial accounts by 11 per cent.

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