While many road authorities in North America are finding it difficult to stretch their bridge assets beyond half a century, one bridge is closing in on its centenary - David Arminas reports
The international Peace Bridge, connecting the Canadian province of Ontario with the US state of New York, is 88 years young this year, and still going strong.
4. The steelwork has been regularly maintained to minimise corrosion 5. The Peace Bridge has long provided a transport connection between the US and Canada
While many road authorities in North America are finding it difficult to stretch their bridge assets beyond half a century, one bridge is closing in on its centenary - David Arminas reports
The international Peace Bridge, connecting the Canadian province of Ontario with the US state of New York, is 88 years young this year, and still going strong.
The through-truss and steel arch structure is so solid that the owners recently embarked on a major US$185 million renovation plan to extend its life for decades. In December 2014, the authority opened a $10 million approach system that widens entry into the US plaza. A request for proposals was issued last November for a major re-decking project, with work to start in August this year.
The project will also bring the structure up to modern aesthetic standards, with a wider pedestrian and cycle lane and retro lighting befitting a period structure. There will, for the first time, be a viewpoint halfway across for people to admire the expansive views – Buffalo city’s skyline, the Niagara River rushing past piers far below and Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes, off in the distance.
But why spend that much money on an ageing toll bridge and not put it into a new structure? The answer is partly technical and partly political, thanks to the bridge being international, connecting the small Canadian town of Fort Erie with Buffalo, a major New York state city.
Politically, the bridge can be subject to cross-border disagreements, both within the authority and outside, that can slow down decision-making, says Ron Rienas, general manager of the bi-national Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority, the bridge’s owner. “Because the Peace Bridge Authority is bi-national, there are always issues to be thrashed out,” he explained.
“Some are internal personnel issues, like who-does-what and because I’m Canadian do I favour Canadian over US people. But when it comes to maintenance, there really haven’t been any differences of opinion and3220 Parsons Transportation has also been our engineer of record for decades.”
Externally, US politicians and pressure groups have been cautious about building a new bridge, with concerns over construction costs and possible toll increases to pay for it, not to mention government money being used to subsidise the project. The recently announced Gordie Howe Bridge project, another international connection, between Windsor in Canada and Detroit in the US, is a case in point where American politicians were mostly negative about the project. Eventually, the federal Canadian government announced it would be a $2.4 billion public-private partnership deal financed and owned entirely by Canada, down to the customs booths on the US side.
Technically, the Peace Bridge was over-engineered when built and it has been maintained fastidiously by the Authority. "We're a single-asset authority, so the organisation really has been on top of the asset,” said Rienas.
“Private owners or local governments with multiple assets might take months or years to fix something. We’ll do it within a month. Our guys are on this bridge every day of the year, sometimes out there with caulking guns sealing cracks in the deck. The legal requirement is to fully inspect the underside every two years. We do it every year,” said Rienas, who started with the authority as facility manager for the bridge 15 years ago and for the past 12 years has been general manager.
“We don’t use salt on the bridge, unlike on many highway bridges, and instead use an environmentally friendly chemical de-icer. We also have our own snowploughs, gritting trucks, too. A lead-abatement programme was done about 20 years ago where we blasted the entire bridge to strip off lead-based paint. The steel was then coated with an epoxy covering. Expensive, yes, but it’s served us very well.”
Everything is paid for by tolls. “It’s all self-funded. Not one dollar of tax revenue from Canada or New York State or the US federal government,” he said. Surpluses go towards the capital plan and finances the authority’s debt. “We’re looking to do a bond issue to help finance the rehabilitation project, in 2017. Because we are self-financing, it gives us the flexibility to do things the way we want to do them and when we need to do them.”
The bridge was designed as a bi-modal structure - two vehicle lanes separated by a trolley rail line. There never was a trolley, but the longitudinal centre of the bridge is extremely strong to handle a possible trolley, explains Tim Coyle, an engineer with the bridge’s maintenance contractor Parsons. The undivided bridge deck has, for many years, been split into three 3.65m-wide lanes, with overhead gantry signals directing traffic in and out of the middle lane to reverse lane direction during peak periods.
The concrete piers, too, are really oversized for the structure. They have granite “ice-breaker” shields on the upriver side to protect them from water erosion as well as impact and scouring during the spring break-up of lake and river ice.
The biggest structural weight issue is with the arches, which are about only 15% overdesigned, not that much, he explained. This will limit the bridge’s carrying capacity in the end and would likely preclude any fourth lane if space would allow for it. The impressively high Parker Truss on the American side of bridge is twice as strong as it really needed to be. Its 30m clearance of the Black Rock Canal, adjacent to the river, is high enough to allow passage of many sea-going vessels. A lot of the “stringers” – those small structures as part of larger units – are around 25% overdesigned.
However overdesigned and well-maintained, a makeover is needed, explained Coyle, who is also project manager for the bridge’s deck replacement work. “Major structural components, such as foundations, arches and floorbeams, have plenty of life left in them. But the authority is taking advantage of the opportunity that comes with replacement of the deck. They are proactively rehabilitating or replacing features before they become problematic.”
Design Work for the project is being carried out by Parsons, based in California, and, CHA, based in Albany, New York state. Management and the bulk of design work is being performed out of the office of Parsons Transport and CHA’s Buffalo office.
The authority also had, “…an appetite to bring back some of the charm the bridge once had when constructed,” said Coyle. “Beyond the concrete deck heading towards the end of its service life, just about every other feature above deck including the railings, joints, sidewalks and light poles were in need of attention.”
The goal will be to make the bridge more of a destination for travellers by adding a relatively small observation platform to the widened sidewalk and bikeway. Around 10,000 people walk across bridge during the summer months. These people, as well as curious visitors, will look down and feel the might of the river and better appreciate the sheer volume of water flowing over the iconic Niagara Falls just a few kilometres downstream.
“These new and redesigned features have the potential for adding significant weight to the structure. But this will be mitigated by a lightweight concrete-filled steel grid deck along the entire bridge,” said Coyle. “This is about 40% lighter than the current conventional reinforced concrete deck.”
The deck could likely be kept going for another 10-15 years, but the frequency of repairs is increasing, with deck blowouts occurring where the headers of joints are failing.
Summertime tourist traffic can nearly double between May and September and with historically low traffic volumes anyway, rehab work is being done during the off-peak season to minimise the impact on travellers.
The whole deck, including the original base, is going to be replaced. This will be the first time the steel of the bridge underneath the cement deck base will be exposed since concrete was laid in the 1920s, said Coyle.
The current concrete deck with a latex modified concrete wearing surface is about 25 years old. The base though, is the original 18cm or so of concrete. On top of the base, when built, the bridge had granite paving stones, around 13cm deep (see picture). These paving stones were removed only in the 1970s and replaced with asphalt, which was eventually shaved off to make way for the latex modified concrete. When the heavy paving stones were removed and replaced first with asphalt and then concrete surfaces, this reduced the structural load on the bridge and actually increased its capacity. This is another factor that has helped the structure cope so well despite its advancing years.
The authority plans to close down one lane at night during the winter months when passenger car traffic volume is lowest. Commercial traffic, though, remains level year-round. However, as Coyle said, truckers are generally more understanding than car drivers of the need to close lanes for maintenance.
“The issue with night construction is speed. You have a tight deadline to finish work and have very little time to tackle unforeseen problems because the lane must be open by the morning.” That is where mistakes are made that might allow corrosion of rebar and joints.
“We know there will be issues, but we also know pretty much what we will find. When you do night work you have to do saw-cut chocks and lift them out to get the deck out. If you discover that, say, 40% of the top flange is corroded, you would have to come back and repair it from underneath the deck because of a lack to time to do it during the night. Best to do it the right way right then and there during lane closure.”
Standing at mid-bridge can be a struggle in any season because of fierce winds driving up and down the river. In winter, the thermometer dips regularly to -10°C, but has been known to plummet beyond -25°C, without considering a wind-chill factor.
“You can’t concrete in that weather,” he said “We’re going with a steel grid system as opposed to a solid concrete deck which is heavier. We’ll be assembling a steel grid on deck and then filling it with concrete in the spring,” explained Coyle, “It looks the same and rides the same as a traditional concrete deck but is thinner and saves weight.
The steel grid work becomes the formwork for the concrete deck. All the fine tuning – elevations and angles - is done come April when the weather is more cooperative. “We’ll continuously pour from one side of the bridge to the other to fill the grid deck and then typically give it four weeks to cure. So one lane at a time, over three winters, will be worked on,” he said. Also, during the summers, some small non-disruptive work will be done on the bridge’s slip roads.
Fiscal responsibility is what the Peace Bridge Authority is all about and it has an “unstated mandate” to keep tolls as low as possible, said Rienas. “The authority doesn’t want tolls to be a disincentive for international travel.”
Around a quarter of the traffic is commercial, accounting for around $40 billion worth of economic activity. On a map it looks like the bridge connects a busy city – Buffalo and region, population more than 1 million - to nowhere – Fort Erie, population 30,000. However, the bridge is on the edge of Buffalo’s city centre. Freeway connections immediately on the bridge’s Canadian side means Toronto – population 2.6 million – is close, only 160km away. It is reachable in around two hours via Ontario’s Queen Elizabeth Way that hugs Lake Ontario right into Toronto’s downtown.
Even so, traffic volumes are down, according to Rienas. International bridges may be very important trade conduits but they have very low overall traffic volumes compared to domestic bridges. “People see congestion on the bridge and think volumes are high. But congestion is due partly to customs services struggling at times to keep up with the volume.”
Volume had been dropping since 1999 and then along came 9/11, the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York in 2001. Almost overnight, car traffic dropped 40% and truck traffic dipped by 15%. “The border is a much different place today. Pre-9/11 you could cross the border without any documentation, simply make an oral declaration. If you had a library card that was often good enough.”
Inspection time for commercial traffic has more than doubled and inspections are more thorough. “Some people would cross two or three times a week. Now it may be only once,” said Rienas. Traffic volume for 2015 was down around 5% on predictions, at around 5.4 million crossings. Traffic was 7.3 million crossings in 2003.
Still, in the past 20 years there has been, and continues to be, a lot of discussion about building a new bridge, or twinning this one, or building a so-called signature bridge. “Our peak traffic year was 1999 and so we started an environmental impact study to build a new bridge.” But the price tag of around $750 million lessened enthusiasm for the project, he said.
So for now, the structure is headed for its 100th birthday party in 2028. But, depending on politicians on both sides of the border, an invigorated Peace Bridge might be getting a sibling at some time.
Niagara River, the Canada-US border
The 58km Niagara River flows north from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario and forms part of the border between the Canadian province of Ontario on the west and to the east the US state of New York. It includes the 50m-high Niagara Falls, consisting of the larger Canadian Horeshoe Falls and the smaller American Falls - a major tourist attraction. The river’s elevation difference is around 100m, with the deepest part reaching around 52m. The river featured in the War of 1812, a two-and-a-half-year conflict when the US invaded Canada, then a colony of the United Kingdom. Several thousand troops on both sides were killed before Americans were beaten back across the river. The Fort Erie crossing was named reportedly to celebrate the more than 100 years of peace after the war.
A second bridge?
As a 17-year-old kid, Anthony Annunziata recalls being nervous while standing in the centre lane of the Peace Bridge, with wind whipping over the deck and articulated trucks bearing down on him.
It wasn’t a job for the faint-hearted, says Annunziata, now chairman of the Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority, or Peace Bridge Auhority.
“I grew up in Fort Erie and one of my first jobs was as a flagman directing traffic on the bridge around 1985. They would send me up on the bridge with a traffic cone and direct vehicles into another lane. That’s how we switched traffic lanes back then. I’ve stood on the middle of that bridge during heavy July traffic and felt it bounce under my feet. With the change-lane gantry system now, it’s thankfully less life-threatening!”
The idea of a new or second bridge comes up from time to time, says Annunziata, a self-confessed “Niagara Guy”. His day job is vice president of marketing and business development for Marriott Hotels in Niagara. His career in the hospitalitiy sector has seen him work for Hilton Hotels and he also opened Niagara city’s two casinos for another company. “I have relationships on both sides of the border, so becoming a member of the authority has been a good fit,” he says.
“We’re a 10-member board, with five members appointed from each country’s authority. The Canadian federal government’s Transport Canada appoints the five Canadian members. The governor of New York state has four appointees of which three are in the state’s department of transportation and the other is the state’s attorney general.
The chairman is appointed from the board for one year and each side takes turns nominating the person they would like.The other side “out of respect” accepts that nomination, explains Annunziata. He has been on the board for three three-year terms and has served as chairman five times during that period.
At times that respect appears to be little in attendance. Buffalo media have in the past quickly pointed out the irony of the Peace Bridge Authority not being very peaceful, having major internal battles – sometimes even resulting in lawsuits – over legal issues and even future bridge designs.
The authority’s biggest task is managing traffic flow and driver expectations. Land issues, mostly on the US side – a lack of room for expansion – means expanding the bridge is difficult. “It was built as a three-lane bridge 87 years ago. Populations have increased but we are still three lanes. From an infrastructure perspective… land capacity is certainly an issue were looking into.”
As with many international bridge plans, a thorny issue is who should pay for customs plaza development. Should a bridge owner pay to house a less-than-efficient customs clearance set-up while at the same time build and pay for more traffic lanes to act as a parking lot for waiting vehicles? Or will more lanes mean an efficient customs clearance operates to its maximum to keep delays to a minimum? It was such an issue that bedevilled an agreement for the planned Gordie Howe Bridge between Detoit in the US and Windsor in Canada.
The Peace Bridge funds itself through a user-fee model but at the end of the day there has to be some funding to improve the service, he says. The benefits of government funding would also be felt in the local community through more jobs. Timing could be right for a new bridge, with the Canadian government having earmarked around $2.4 billion for the Gordie Howe Bridge.
The Peace Bridge Authority has, in the past, looked at getting funding for a new bridge but has “walked away” from the idea becauser the numbers just didn't add up, says Anunziata. The last time they walked away was in 2011 after a decade of environmental studies suggested that a new bridge along with customs plazas would come in at $700 million. Instead, around $200 million is being spent on improvements, including about $100 million for redecking and rehabilitation to begin this year, up to 2019.
But this didn’t stop Annunziata in October 2015 when, as chairman, he called again for a new bridge. He primed politicians in Canada and the US, urging them to consider a new crossing, with construction to start in 2019 or shortly thereafter. “Absolutely,” he told World Highways, during a recent interview.
The design of the exising bridge allows for only a short fourth-lane expansion on the Canadian side because the spans will support it. On the US approach to the bridge, there is very little room for expansion, he says.
“We’ve looked at dozens of iterations for lane expansion using the peer and bridge structure,” he says. “But the reality is the cost would be equivalent to building another span [bridge]. From the authority’s responsibility, we have to look at whether there needs to be six, seven, eight lanes crossing, perhaps on two bridges.”
The key to building a new bridge would be the customs plazas on each side, he explains. Larger facilities could process vehicles faster. This could include e-manifesting of large trucks, to allow pre-clearance before they get to the bridge. Having car traffic mingle with the large number of trucks is an issue that affects lane capacity. More lanes would allow segmenting of vehicles to introduced things such as a “trusted traveller programme” [fast customs clearance] for passenger cars to avoid longer time at the customs plazas.
Crossing the Niagara River
PEACE BRIDGE: 1.8km, connecting Fort Erie, Ontario, and Buffalo, New York state; completed 1927 with five steel arched spans acoss the Niagara River and a Parker through-truss span over the parallel Black Rock Canal on the American side of the river – commercial and passenger vehicles, as well as pedestians and cyclists.
RAINBOW BRIDGE: 440m, connecting Niagara Falls, New York, to Niagara Falls, Ontario; completed 1941 as a four-lane steel arch bridge – passengear vehicles and pedestrians only.
WHIRLPOOL RAPIDS BRIDGE: 329m long, connecting Niagara Falls, NY, and Niagara Falls, Ontario; built in 1897 as a spandrel braced, riveted, two-hinged arch bridge - double-deck with two rail lines above and two passenger vehicle lanes below (no commercial vehicles or pedestrians).
LEWISTON-QUEENSTON BRIDGE: 488m long, connecting Lewiston, NY, to Queenston, Ontario; completed 1962 and is indentical to the Rainbow Bridge at nearby Niagara Falls – passenger and commercial vehicles, as well as licenced taxis, but no pedestrians.
INTERNATIONAL RAILWAY BRIDGE: 810m long, connecting Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, NY; built in 1873 as an iron double-swing bridge, although the Canadian swing span ceases to operate – freight trains only, no passenger trains.
The international Peace Bridge, connecting the Canadian province of Ontario with the US state of New York, is 88 years young this year, and still going strong.
The through-truss and steel arch structure is so solid that the owners recently embarked on a major US$185 million renovation plan to extend its life for decades. In December 2014, the authority opened a $10 million approach system that widens entry into the US plaza. A request for proposals was issued last November for a major re-decking project, with work to start in August this year.
The project will also bring the structure up to modern aesthetic standards, with a wider pedestrian and cycle lane and retro lighting befitting a period structure. There will, for the first time, be a viewpoint halfway across for people to admire the expansive views – Buffalo city’s skyline, the Niagara River rushing past piers far below and Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes, off in the distance.
But why spend that much money on an ageing toll bridge and not put it into a new structure? The answer is partly technical and partly political, thanks to the bridge being international, connecting the small Canadian town of Fort Erie with Buffalo, a major New York state city.
Politically, the bridge can be subject to cross-border disagreements, both within the authority and outside, that can slow down decision-making, says Ron Rienas, general manager of the bi-national Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority, the bridge’s owner. “Because the Peace Bridge Authority is bi-national, there are always issues to be thrashed out,” he explained.
“Some are internal personnel issues, like who-does-what and because I’m Canadian do I favour Canadian over US people. But when it comes to maintenance, there really haven’t been any differences of opinion and
Externally, US politicians and pressure groups have been cautious about building a new bridge, with concerns over construction costs and possible toll increases to pay for it, not to mention government money being used to subsidise the project. The recently announced Gordie Howe Bridge project, another international connection, between Windsor in Canada and Detroit in the US, is a case in point where American politicians were mostly negative about the project. Eventually, the federal Canadian government announced it would be a $2.4 billion public-private partnership deal financed and owned entirely by Canada, down to the customs booths on the US side.
Technically, the Peace Bridge was over-engineered when built and it has been maintained fastidiously by the Authority. "We're a single-asset authority, so the organisation really has been on top of the asset,” said Rienas.
“Private owners or local governments with multiple assets might take months or years to fix something. We’ll do it within a month. Our guys are on this bridge every day of the year, sometimes out there with caulking guns sealing cracks in the deck. The legal requirement is to fully inspect the underside every two years. We do it every year,” said Rienas, who started with the authority as facility manager for the bridge 15 years ago and for the past 12 years has been general manager.
“We don’t use salt on the bridge, unlike on many highway bridges, and instead use an environmentally friendly chemical de-icer. We also have our own snowploughs, gritting trucks, too. A lead-abatement programme was done about 20 years ago where we blasted the entire bridge to strip off lead-based paint. The steel was then coated with an epoxy covering. Expensive, yes, but it’s served us very well.”
Everything is paid for by tolls. “It’s all self-funded. Not one dollar of tax revenue from Canada or New York State or the US federal government,” he said. Surpluses go towards the capital plan and finances the authority’s debt. “We’re looking to do a bond issue to help finance the rehabilitation project, in 2017. Because we are self-financing, it gives us the flexibility to do things the way we want to do them and when we need to do them.”
The bridge was designed as a bi-modal structure - two vehicle lanes separated by a trolley rail line. There never was a trolley, but the longitudinal centre of the bridge is extremely strong to handle a possible trolley, explains Tim Coyle, an engineer with the bridge’s maintenance contractor Parsons. The undivided bridge deck has, for many years, been split into three 3.65m-wide lanes, with overhead gantry signals directing traffic in and out of the middle lane to reverse lane direction during peak periods.
The concrete piers, too, are really oversized for the structure. They have granite “ice-breaker” shields on the upriver side to protect them from water erosion as well as impact and scouring during the spring break-up of lake and river ice.
The biggest structural weight issue is with the arches, which are about only 15% overdesigned, not that much, he explained. This will limit the bridge’s carrying capacity in the end and would likely preclude any fourth lane if space would allow for it. The impressively high Parker Truss on the American side of bridge is twice as strong as it really needed to be. Its 30m clearance of the Black Rock Canal, adjacent to the river, is high enough to allow passage of many sea-going vessels. A lot of the “stringers” – those small structures as part of larger units – are around 25% overdesigned.
However overdesigned and well-maintained, a makeover is needed, explained Coyle, who is also project manager for the bridge’s deck replacement work. “Major structural components, such as foundations, arches and floorbeams, have plenty of life left in them. But the authority is taking advantage of the opportunity that comes with replacement of the deck. They are proactively rehabilitating or replacing features before they become problematic.”
Design Work for the project is being carried out by Parsons, based in California, and, CHA, based in Albany, New York state. Management and the bulk of design work is being performed out of the office of Parsons Transport and CHA’s Buffalo office.
The authority also had, “…an appetite to bring back some of the charm the bridge once had when constructed,” said Coyle. “Beyond the concrete deck heading towards the end of its service life, just about every other feature above deck including the railings, joints, sidewalks and light poles were in need of attention.”
The goal will be to make the bridge more of a destination for travellers by adding a relatively small observation platform to the widened sidewalk and bikeway. Around 10,000 people walk across bridge during the summer months. These people, as well as curious visitors, will look down and feel the might of the river and better appreciate the sheer volume of water flowing over the iconic Niagara Falls just a few kilometres downstream.
“These new and redesigned features have the potential for adding significant weight to the structure. But this will be mitigated by a lightweight concrete-filled steel grid deck along the entire bridge,” said Coyle. “This is about 40% lighter than the current conventional reinforced concrete deck.”
The deck could likely be kept going for another 10-15 years, but the frequency of repairs is increasing, with deck blowouts occurring where the headers of joints are failing.
Summertime tourist traffic can nearly double between May and September and with historically low traffic volumes anyway, rehab work is being done during the off-peak season to minimise the impact on travellers.
The whole deck, including the original base, is going to be replaced. This will be the first time the steel of the bridge underneath the cement deck base will be exposed since concrete was laid in the 1920s, said Coyle.
The current concrete deck with a latex modified concrete wearing surface is about 25 years old. The base though, is the original 18cm or so of concrete. On top of the base, when built, the bridge had granite paving stones, around 13cm deep (see picture). These paving stones were removed only in the 1970s and replaced with asphalt, which was eventually shaved off to make way for the latex modified concrete. When the heavy paving stones were removed and replaced first with asphalt and then concrete surfaces, this reduced the structural load on the bridge and actually increased its capacity. This is another factor that has helped the structure cope so well despite its advancing years.
The authority plans to close down one lane at night during the winter months when passenger car traffic volume is lowest. Commercial traffic, though, remains level year-round. However, as Coyle said, truckers are generally more understanding than car drivers of the need to close lanes for maintenance.
“The issue with night construction is speed. You have a tight deadline to finish work and have very little time to tackle unforeseen problems because the lane must be open by the morning.” That is where mistakes are made that might allow corrosion of rebar and joints.
“We know there will be issues, but we also know pretty much what we will find. When you do night work you have to do saw-cut chocks and lift them out to get the deck out. If you discover that, say, 40% of the top flange is corroded, you would have to come back and repair it from underneath the deck because of a lack to time to do it during the night. Best to do it the right way right then and there during lane closure.”
Standing at mid-bridge can be a struggle in any season because of fierce winds driving up and down the river. In winter, the thermometer dips regularly to -10°C, but has been known to plummet beyond -25°C, without considering a wind-chill factor.
“You can’t concrete in that weather,” he said “We’re going with a steel grid system as opposed to a solid concrete deck which is heavier. We’ll be assembling a steel grid on deck and then filling it with concrete in the spring,” explained Coyle, “It looks the same and rides the same as a traditional concrete deck but is thinner and saves weight.
The steel grid work becomes the formwork for the concrete deck. All the fine tuning – elevations and angles - is done come April when the weather is more cooperative. “We’ll continuously pour from one side of the bridge to the other to fill the grid deck and then typically give it four weeks to cure. So one lane at a time, over three winters, will be worked on,” he said. Also, during the summers, some small non-disruptive work will be done on the bridge’s slip roads.
Fiscal responsibility is what the Peace Bridge Authority is all about and it has an “unstated mandate” to keep tolls as low as possible, said Rienas. “The authority doesn’t want tolls to be a disincentive for international travel.”
Around a quarter of the traffic is commercial, accounting for around $40 billion worth of economic activity. On a map it looks like the bridge connects a busy city – Buffalo and region, population more than 1 million - to nowhere – Fort Erie, population 30,000. However, the bridge is on the edge of Buffalo’s city centre. Freeway connections immediately on the bridge’s Canadian side means Toronto – population 2.6 million – is close, only 160km away. It is reachable in around two hours via Ontario’s Queen Elizabeth Way that hugs Lake Ontario right into Toronto’s downtown.
Even so, traffic volumes are down, according to Rienas. International bridges may be very important trade conduits but they have very low overall traffic volumes compared to domestic bridges. “People see congestion on the bridge and think volumes are high. But congestion is due partly to customs services struggling at times to keep up with the volume.”
Volume had been dropping since 1999 and then along came 9/11, the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York in 2001. Almost overnight, car traffic dropped 40% and truck traffic dipped by 15%. “The border is a much different place today. Pre-9/11 you could cross the border without any documentation, simply make an oral declaration. If you had a library card that was often good enough.”
Inspection time for commercial traffic has more than doubled and inspections are more thorough. “Some people would cross two or three times a week. Now it may be only once,” said Rienas. Traffic volume for 2015 was down around 5% on predictions, at around 5.4 million crossings. Traffic was 7.3 million crossings in 2003.
Still, in the past 20 years there has been, and continues to be, a lot of discussion about building a new bridge, or twinning this one, or building a so-called signature bridge. “Our peak traffic year was 1999 and so we started an environmental impact study to build a new bridge.” But the price tag of around $750 million lessened enthusiasm for the project, he said.
So for now, the structure is headed for its 100th birthday party in 2028. But, depending on politicians on both sides of the border, an invigorated Peace Bridge might be getting a sibling at some time.
Niagara River, the Canada-US border
The 58km Niagara River flows north from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario and forms part of the border between the Canadian province of Ontario on the west and to the east the US state of New York. It includes the 50m-high Niagara Falls, consisting of the larger Canadian Horeshoe Falls and the smaller American Falls - a major tourist attraction. The river’s elevation difference is around 100m, with the deepest part reaching around 52m. The river featured in the War of 1812, a two-and-a-half-year conflict when the US invaded Canada, then a colony of the United Kingdom. Several thousand troops on both sides were killed before Americans were beaten back across the river. The Fort Erie crossing was named reportedly to celebrate the more than 100 years of peace after the war.
A second bridge?
As a 17-year-old kid, Anthony Annunziata recalls being nervous while standing in the centre lane of the Peace Bridge, with wind whipping over the deck and articulated trucks bearing down on him.
It wasn’t a job for the faint-hearted, says Annunziata, now chairman of the Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority, or Peace Bridge Auhority.
“I grew up in Fort Erie and one of my first jobs was as a flagman directing traffic on the bridge around 1985. They would send me up on the bridge with a traffic cone and direct vehicles into another lane. That’s how we switched traffic lanes back then. I’ve stood on the middle of that bridge during heavy July traffic and felt it bounce under my feet. With the change-lane gantry system now, it’s thankfully less life-threatening!”
The idea of a new or second bridge comes up from time to time, says Annunziata, a self-confessed “Niagara Guy”. His day job is vice president of marketing and business development for Marriott Hotels in Niagara. His career in the hospitalitiy sector has seen him work for Hilton Hotels and he also opened Niagara city’s two casinos for another company. “I have relationships on both sides of the border, so becoming a member of the authority has been a good fit,” he says.
“We’re a 10-member board, with five members appointed from each country’s authority. The Canadian federal government’s Transport Canada appoints the five Canadian members. The governor of New York state has four appointees of which three are in the state’s department of transportation and the other is the state’s attorney general.
The chairman is appointed from the board for one year and each side takes turns nominating the person they would like.The other side “out of respect” accepts that nomination, explains Annunziata. He has been on the board for three three-year terms and has served as chairman five times during that period.
At times that respect appears to be little in attendance. Buffalo media have in the past quickly pointed out the irony of the Peace Bridge Authority not being very peaceful, having major internal battles – sometimes even resulting in lawsuits – over legal issues and even future bridge designs.
The authority’s biggest task is managing traffic flow and driver expectations. Land issues, mostly on the US side – a lack of room for expansion – means expanding the bridge is difficult. “It was built as a three-lane bridge 87 years ago. Populations have increased but we are still three lanes. From an infrastructure perspective… land capacity is certainly an issue were looking into.”
As with many international bridge plans, a thorny issue is who should pay for customs plaza development. Should a bridge owner pay to house a less-than-efficient customs clearance set-up while at the same time build and pay for more traffic lanes to act as a parking lot for waiting vehicles? Or will more lanes mean an efficient customs clearance operates to its maximum to keep delays to a minimum? It was such an issue that bedevilled an agreement for the planned Gordie Howe Bridge between Detoit in the US and Windsor in Canada.
The Peace Bridge funds itself through a user-fee model but at the end of the day there has to be some funding to improve the service, he says. The benefits of government funding would also be felt in the local community through more jobs. Timing could be right for a new bridge, with the Canadian government having earmarked around $2.4 billion for the Gordie Howe Bridge.
The Peace Bridge Authority has, in the past, looked at getting funding for a new bridge but has “walked away” from the idea becauser the numbers just didn't add up, says Anunziata. The last time they walked away was in 2011 after a decade of environmental studies suggested that a new bridge along with customs plazas would come in at $700 million. Instead, around $200 million is being spent on improvements, including about $100 million for redecking and rehabilitation to begin this year, up to 2019.
But this didn’t stop Annunziata in October 2015 when, as chairman, he called again for a new bridge. He primed politicians in Canada and the US, urging them to consider a new crossing, with construction to start in 2019 or shortly thereafter. “Absolutely,” he told World Highways, during a recent interview.
The design of the exising bridge allows for only a short fourth-lane expansion on the Canadian side because the spans will support it. On the US approach to the bridge, there is very little room for expansion, he says.
“We’ve looked at dozens of iterations for lane expansion using the peer and bridge structure,” he says. “But the reality is the cost would be equivalent to building another span [bridge]. From the authority’s responsibility, we have to look at whether there needs to be six, seven, eight lanes crossing, perhaps on two bridges.”
The key to building a new bridge would be the customs plazas on each side, he explains. Larger facilities could process vehicles faster. This could include e-manifesting of large trucks, to allow pre-clearance before they get to the bridge. Having car traffic mingle with the large number of trucks is an issue that affects lane capacity. More lanes would allow segmenting of vehicles to introduced things such as a “trusted traveller programme” [fast customs clearance] for passenger cars to avoid longer time at the customs plazas.
Crossing the Niagara River
PEACE BRIDGE: 1.8km, connecting Fort Erie, Ontario, and Buffalo, New York state; completed 1927 with five steel arched spans acoss the Niagara River and a Parker through-truss span over the parallel Black Rock Canal on the American side of the river – commercial and passenger vehicles, as well as pedestians and cyclists.
RAINBOW BRIDGE: 440m, connecting Niagara Falls, New York, to Niagara Falls, Ontario; completed 1941 as a four-lane steel arch bridge – passengear vehicles and pedestrians only.
WHIRLPOOL RAPIDS BRIDGE: 329m long, connecting Niagara Falls, NY, and Niagara Falls, Ontario; built in 1897 as a spandrel braced, riveted, two-hinged arch bridge - double-deck with two rail lines above and two passenger vehicle lanes below (no commercial vehicles or pedestrians).
LEWISTON-QUEENSTON BRIDGE: 488m long, connecting Lewiston, NY, to Queenston, Ontario; completed 1962 and is indentical to the Rainbow Bridge at nearby Niagara Falls – passenger and commercial vehicles, as well as licenced taxis, but no pedestrians.
INTERNATIONAL RAILWAY BRIDGE: 810m long, connecting Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, NY; built in 1873 as an iron double-swing bridge, although the Canadian swing span ceases to operate – freight trains only, no passenger trains.
