NEW YORK: With a Peace Bridge pre-inspection pilot project coming to a close, a federal lawmaker is pressing the appropriate US and Canadian agencies to make the program permanent.
Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, has asked the U.S. Customs & Border Protection Agency to allow the Peace Bridge pre-inspection program, where U.S.-bound commercial vehicles are inspected on the Canadian side, be made permanent. The pilot program expired on Jan. 20, one year after it began. U.S. Customs is then to conduct an independent review of the program before determining if it should be made permanent. Higgins said he will be very aggressive in his lobbying efforts.
“The results have been beyond our original expectations,” Higgins said. “By all accounts, they were favorable.”
By allowing the commercial pre-inspection services to take place along the Fort Erie plaza, it alleviates truck traffic tie-ups along the Buffalo side of the bridge. Long lines of trucks are believed to cause some health issues in the lower West Side neighborhoods near the busy international crossing.
For now, trucks will have to line up again on the U.S. plaza to be inspected.
The pilot program began two years again between Blaine, Wash., and Surry, B.C., and then shifted to Buffalo and Fort Erie.
Customs will review the information gathered from both programs before determining if it should be made a permanent practice.
Higgins, last summer brought Gil Kerlikowske, U.S. Customs commissioner — and former Buffalo Police Commissioner — to the Peace Bridge for a first-hand view of how effectively the program was working. Under the pilot program only two pre-inspection lanes were used, however, it becomes permanent as many as 10 lanes will be used along the Fort Erie plaza.
