$7M granted to WSDOT for improvements to border wait-time information systems

The Washington State Department of Transportation has been awarded $7M in grant money to improve information on wait times for those crossing the northern border. 

The WSDOT was awarded almost $7 million through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation grant program and will be used for Blaine, Lynden and Sumas, Washington border crossings, reported The Chronicle.

“This grant will provide crucial funding to install new technology that will improve traffic management during border-crossing surges that will keep travelers and goods moving,” said Democratic U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell. 

The current wait-time notification systems are over 20 years old and are “failing or becoming obsolete.”

“The technology used to estimate traffic delays doesn’t work as well in queued conditions; accuracy is impacted with infrastructure or operational changes; there are no calculations for commercial wait times; and wait times provided are estimates when an ideal system would provide estimated and actual wait times as two calculations,” the Whatcom Council of Governments said in 2022.

356,021 commercial trucks entered the U.S. from Canada through Blaine in 2023.