Renovations complete at Alexandria Bay Port of Entry

Aug. 4—WELLESLEY ISLAND — Travelers moving through the Alexandria Bay Port of Entry will be greeted by a sleek new facility as they cross the border and the International Rift Bridge between Wellesley and Hill islands.

The U.S. port of entry, which hosts part of the local U.S. Customs and Border Protection operation and sees tens of thousands of vehicles every month, has been completely rebuilt, expanded and modernized at a cost of $215 million. It's a project that has been in the works since George W. Bush was president. Construction began in 2017.

"It's a brand-new facility that greatly improves our ability to screen incoming passenger and commercial traffic," said area port director Timothy J. Walker.

The new facility, with a sweeping steel facade, has 15 inspection lanes for passenger and commercial vehicles, including buses and RVs, up from the nine the previous facility had, allowing for speedier crossing times. Commercial traffic now has its own dedicated lanes, separate from the passenger side, and a new commercial inspection facility completed last year allows for closer inspection of incoming and outgoing trucks, CBP says.

Each year more than 200,000 commercial vehicles and 590,000 passenger vehicles pass through the port of entry, according to the U.S. General Services Administration, making it the sixth busiest land crossing along the Canadian border. The busiest crossing is the Ambassador Bridge, which crosses the Detroit River in Detroit, Mich. More than 3.6 million cars cross that bridge annually.

The entire facility has shifted about 300 yards farther into U.S. territory, away from the Canadian port of entry buildings and the International Rift Bridge.

Kurt L. Tennant, assistant area port director for passenger operations, said that shift, coupled with the additional inspection lanes, will dramatically improve the traffic through and around the crossing.

"Lines could back up to the Canadian side, out onto the highway at times and that was just not safe," he said during a tour on Tuesday.

The wait times are published live online. According to the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol website Wednesday at 6 p.m. there was no wait, and three lanes were open. A chart shows the average wait is longest at 1 p.m., and that is just eight minutes. Other average busy times are 10 a.m., noon and 3 p.m., but the chart recorded no wait times all day Wednesday.

Mr. Tennant said the new facility has dramatically improved the efficiency and morale of the CBP officers stationed there. In the customs and trade enforcement division, a vast new facility with laboratories and vehicle inspection bays allows officers to inspect the goods and vehicles that cross the border more closely, to ensure duties are paid and dangerous materials aren't brought into the country.

On the border security side, officers have more tools to validate travelers' identities, and more spacious facilities to process paperwork. A new lobby to the side of the vehicle inspection bays, featuring a $1.3 million art installation above the counter, allows travelers who need visas or residency paperwork to get what they need in a more organized manner.

The new building replaces what was a 45-year-old crossing, originally built by the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority. That port of entry was built for a time when passport checks along the northern border were few and far between and traffic was lighter, when U.S. and Canadian border protection was split among a variety of agencies and federal departments.

The creation of the Department of Homeland Security in 2001 following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and the subsequent creation of the Customs and Border Protection agency within the department demanded radical changes at all international crossings in the U.S., something Mr. Tennant said the old facility just couldn't handle.

Officials at the port of entry are ecstatic about the new facility, which has space to expand if necessary.

"In every way, quantitative and qualitative, this has been a massive improvement," Mr. Tennant said.

Finishing touches are still being put in place, but the entire project has come to a close slightly ahead of schedule, with initial plans projecting the buildings would be usable but unfinished by September. With the final lane painting projects underway and a few other details left, Mr. Tennant said the last construction crews should leave by the fall. Northland/Cianbro Joint Venture based in Pittsfield, Maine carried out the construction contract.