Intelligent Border Crossing
On March 11, 2004, the Governments of Canada, Ontario and Windsor announced the Let’s Get
Windsor-Essex Moving Strategy, which included new measures as part of a
joint $300M federal-provincial investment to help improve the Windsor Gateway. As part of that investment, $30M is dedicated
to ITS deployments. Under item #5 of the strategy the Governments of Canada and Ontario agreed to
“jointly fund the implementation of ITS along transportation corridors leading to the
border crossings in order to maximize the efficient operation of the network.”
Following a competitive bidding process, the Governments of Canada and Ontario awarded a
contract on September 21, 2004 for the development of an Action Plan for the
Intelligent Border Crossings. The winning consultant team included leading Canadian ITS companies such as Delcan,
McCormick Rankin Corporation, and Lura Consulting. The total project cost is approximately $1.3 million, to be shared
equally by the governments of Canada and Ontario. Federal funding is provided through the Border Infrastructure Fund (BIF). The project will conclude after eighteen months.
The Action Plan will include a concept of operations which provides a vision for how technology can help move
people and goods to and across the Ontario-United States borders; a multi-year
strategy for implementing ITS solutions at Ontario’s border crossings; and
preliminary design of the approved ITS solutions. Throughout the duration of the project, the consultants will identify
several “early win” projects that can be initiated in the short term.
While the action plan will recommend ITS solutions at all of Ontario’s
international border crossings, particular attention will be focused on the
high-volume crossings in Windsor, Sarnia, and in the Niagara area.
In particular, the “early win” projects should provide immediate
initiatives to address the congestion problems in Windsor.
Further information and regular updates are available on the project website at www.intelligentborder.ca.
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