With complaints on the rise about commercial vehicles cutting through Sarnia and Point Edward in a bid to avoid long wait times on the highway due to a $4-million maintenance project on the bridge heading to Michigan, Lambton OPP have launched focused patrols of the area. Hogg has joined those patrols himself several times.
“There were instances where trucks were blocking the local lane completely,” he said Thursday during the Point Edward OPP police board meeting.
Hogg said some trucks have been exiting either at Airport or Modeland roads as they head west, weaving through city and village streets and trying to get back on the provincial highway at the Christina Street entrance.
“But because it’s backed up well beyond that point they would end up diagonally across the local lane and completely shutting down for 15 to 20 minutes at a time,” he said.
To tackle the issue, officers have been routinely monitoring the highway. They’ve had some help there, too.
“We also did some joint enforcement initiatives with the Ministry of Transportation to try and get the message across that the commercial vehicles utilizing the Blue Water Bridge are not to be utilizing the local lane,” he said. “And a number of charges have been laid against commercial drivers for using that right-hand lane.”
Charges include improper use of a border approach lane or interfering with traffic, he said.
The beefed up enforcement has been in response to the construction project that started in early July and it will continue until the project is completed, he said.
“That enforcement is continuing,” he said.