Work to complete Sarnia-area oversized load corridor set to begin

Work is set to begin Monday at Sarnia Harbor on construction of one of the final pieces of a project aimed at easing the movement of large industrial loads through Sarnia and St. Clair Township.

A $8.2-million dock expansion at the north slip in the city is a key part of a $17-million oversized load corridor project initiated several years ago by local machine shops and fabricators who need to move large metal vessels and structures they make either through the community to local industries, or to the harbor to ship them to customers elsewhere.

Previously, that could involve coordinating a fleet of utility trucks and other vehicles to accompany a large industrial load moving slowly through the city, while power lines were raised out of the way.

Lyle Johnson, who has been coordinating the project funded by several levels of government and others, said the work at the dock located at the west end of Exmouth Street is scheduled to be completed by the end of November.

“We basically expanding the dock southbound to about twice the size it is now,” he said.

The dock will be the start, or the end, of the corridor depending on whether a load is coming to the community or leaving, he said.

Much of the other work on the corridor, including burying utility crossings, installing rotating traffic signal bases and other measures to remove barriers on a route through the city and St. Clair Township, already has be completed.

“I’m so proud of everyone who has been part of the process,” said Rick Perdeaux, a board member of the Sarnia Lambton Industrial Alliance, a group of local businesses serving industry that first raised the idea of ​​a corridor with higher power lines and other accommodations to make it easier to move over-sized loads through the community.

Perdeaux said association representatives began talking with governments in 2014 about how jobs and economic activity generated by easing movement of the loads would benefit the community.

“This is wonderful to get to the final stages,” he said.

“I definitely believe it has made a big impact to the safety of the community, reducing the amount of traffic delays and tie ups,” he said.

“I know it’s well over a couple hundred loads that have been pushed through, already.”

A donation of $4 million from the Cestar Group is helping the city with the cost of the work and the site will be named the Cestar dock

Cestar has a private Toronto school licensed since 2011 to teach students using Lambton College curriculum. Lambton College’s athletics facility was renamed in 2021 as the Cestar Group athletic and fitness complex following a $2-million donation by the company.

The oversized load corridor project began in 2019 to allow large industrial loads to pass unfettered through the city and along county roads between Sarnia’s harbor and local fabrication shops and job sites.

Funding for the project comes from the federal and provincial governments, Cestar, Sarnia, Lambton County, St. Clair Township and the Sarnia Lambton Industrial Alliance.

With files from Tyler Kula, The Observer.

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