‘Cadillac of bridges’: Original Blue Water Bridge span to shut for summer maintenance

The original Blue Water Bridge span will close to traffic July 5 for an estimated 100 days of maintenance.

Border crossings will continue in both directions using lanes on the second span, said the Federal Bridge Corp., which owns and maintains the Canadian half of the two-span bridge over the St. Clair River.

Normally, US-bound traffic travels on the original northern span, and Canada-bound vehicles use the newer southern span.

“We’ve got some cross-beam strengthening to do, a bearing replacement, an expansion joint replacement,” said Warren Askew, the corporation’s chief operator. “And then, when we put the bridge back together again, we’re going to repave it.”

The work is expected to cost about $4 million, Askew said.

“The bearing itself is original, so it’s just time to look after some of these things.”

The original span linking Point Edward with Port Huron, Mich., opened in 1938. The second span, just south of the first, opened in 1997.

The last time maintenance closed one of the bridge’s spans was 2015, Askew said.

“Just like in 2015, the plan for us is to move all of the traffic onto the second Blue Water Bridge – the 1997 span,” he said.

That worked “fairly well” during the 2015 work, which mainly involved replacing asphalt, Askew said.

The corporation said during this year’s maintenance, the north lane of the 1997 span will take traffic from Canada, and the south and middle lanes will handle traffic from the US All toll lanes will remain open at each end of the bridge.

Askew said the Crown corporation has been preparing for the temporary closing with Michigan’s Department of Transportation, which maintains the US side of the crossing, and border agencies in Canada and the US

It’s expected those agencies will be ready to handle all traffic using the single span during the temporary closing, he said.

While the bridge’s commercial truck traffic recovered quickly during the pandemic, passenger vehicle traffic dropped significantly due to travel restrictions and has yet to return to pre-COVID levels.

The corporation has said traffic volume is down about 35 per cent at what’s said to be Canada’s second-busiest commercial land crossing.

Michigan officials are expected to carry out smaller maintenance work on the US side while the northern span is shut, Aske said.

Work on the span is expected to be completed by Oct. 5.

This summer’s work isn’t expected to affect public areas beneath the bridge, in and around Point Edward’s Waterfront Park, Askew said.

The original 85-year-old span is in “really good shape,” he added. “Our engineers kind of call it the ‘Cadillac of bridges.’ Askew said. “It’s in really good shape.”

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