It's taking a lot longer than usual to cross the Blue Water Bridge into the United States.
Sarnia-Lambton MP Marilyn Gladu says her office has been told there's a staffing shortage on the American side of the border.
Gladu says not enough staff means there are not enough booths open to process the traffic. As a result, traffic is often being held at the Canadian side of the border.
She says when the bridge was built, Canadians paid for three booths to be constructed and her office is going to continue to be vigilant, to see these issues addressed.
"It's dangerous, I mean lets face it, this is how accidents happen and people die, so it's definitely a problem," says Gladu. "The other thing is we need to keep the flow of goods and services across this border. There's a lot of industry that's involved in just in-time delivery and so we got to keep that going back and forth and we want to see people freely able to travel across the border, we're coming up on a long weekend and those are always busier."
Michigan Department of Transportation spokesperson Jocelyn Hall says staffing on the US side with MDOT isn't an issue. Hall says there's been an increase in both passenger and commercial traffic.
"From a security standpoint, both US and Canadian Customs are going to take longer to clear commercial vehicles, especially if its transporting goods that's significantly more to check through at those security points to ensure that both border crossings are remaining safe," says Hall. "If traffic is jammed up at any point on the actual bridge, and there's some kind of emergency whether it's a crash or a disabled vehicle, it's safer for other other passengers to be back away from a situation like that and it's also safer and much more manageable for emergency responders."
Motorists considering a trip into Port Huron at the Blue Water Bridge are advised to check the Federal Bridge Corporation's twitter account @bluewaterbridge for traffic updates, and allow yourself a little extra time. Also, if you're travelling along the westbound 402, be prepared to slow down or stop for backed up traffic.
-With files from Josh Boyce
