Major border crossing slated for upgrades

The Canadian portion of an important regional border crossing is slated for improvments over the next 3 years.

As detailed by Wikipedia

Champlain-St. Bernard de Lacolle connects Champlain, New York and St-Bernard-de-Lacolle,Quebec and is the terminus of Interstate 87 in the U.S. and Autoroute 15 in Canada. This route is the primary corridor between Montreal and New York City. It is the second-busiest US-Canada border crossing that is not located at a bridge. This crossing is open 24 Hours per day, 365 days per year.

On Wednesday Canada’s Federal Transport Minister Denis Lebel announced that “up to” $47 million will be spent to upgrade infrastructure at Lacolle Border Crossing.

According to this CTV Montreal report:

“Lacolle is a critical commercial border crossing for Canada-US trade with over $21 billion in two-way trade in 2012,” said Lebel. “We will make it efficient, reliable and secure for trade and travel.”

Last year 780,000 vehicles came through the Lacolle border crossing, which is one of the busiest in Canada.

CTV says customs and immigration checkpoint lanes will be nearly doubled and two more Nexus express lanes will be added.

The Montreal Gazette reports this work is slated to begin this year and would compliment previous projects in the area on both side of the border:

In 2006, the federal and Quebec government spent over $86 million on improvements to Highway 15 leading to the Lacolle port of entry, a new commercial vehicle safety inspection station, and intelligent transportation systems.

Likewise, in 2009, the United States spent $90 million redeveloping the adjacent port of entry at Champlain, N.Y.

Here is the CBSA info page for that crossing (ST-BERNARD-DE-LACOLLE: HIGHWAY 15) and just for fun here’s a live camera of what’s happening there now.

Tags: border crossings, canada, trade, transportation