U.S. Sen. Gary Peters makes stop at Blue Water Bridge plaza with CBP commissioner

Sen. Gary Peters said he was feeling more confident about the long-awaited Blue Water U.S. Customs Plaza expansion finally coming to fruition after a tour of the current facility early Friday.

The official, who chairs the U.S. Senate’s Homeland Security Committee, made the stop with U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Chris Magnus — an accepted invitation that, he said, was “a very clear indication of how serious CBP and the Department of Homeland Security is taking this project right now.”

It’s been well over a decade since the Michigan Department of Transportation first cleared property around the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron to make room for a bigger plaza.

The agency, however, has remained largely mum on evolving plans since $25 million in federal funds was designated for the project two years ago.

On Friday, Peters told the Times Herald that he’s been “very involved” working with MDOT and federal authorities to continue to usher the expansion forward, though he too remained non-specific on what timeline lay ahead.

“I’m hoping it’s fairly soon,” Peters said. “I put language in the budget that passed in Congress to require the Department of Homeland Security to have a plan for how to proceed with a Customs Plaza, so they’re going to be required to have that plan, but hopefully, we can expedite it even before that time.”

Peters said the main focus for the tour was to give Magnus and company a chance to see the need for the expansion firsthand.

Citing incoming truck traffic, he said understanding how in-use the port of entry is was key to demonstrating the site warranted an expansion.

“This is a priority for me to get this customs plaza expansion completed,” Peters said. “I thinking we’re making great progress, and hopefully, we’ll have some announcements in the near future. But it was important for him to see it firsthand.”

Port Huron city officials have formerly expressed some skepticism on the project — with Mayor Pauline Repp naming a plaza expansion conclusion to a list of City Council goals earlier this year.

Peters said there was a group of local officials to meet with him and Magnus.

Among them was City Manager James Freed, who said he also has been working with MDOT’s bridge manager on the project. “I’ve been involved in those conversations,” he said. “I believe a plaza project is imminent and inevitable."

While at the customs facility in Port Huron Friday, Peters said they discussed traffic flow and safety concerns associated with the way trucks have to change lanes with cars, and he highlighted initiatives he’s moved through Congress — namely, funding for CBP scanning equipment and expanding the number of agricultural inspectors at ports of entry nationwide — that would also benefit the Blue Water Bridge facility.

They also met some local inspectors as part of that process.

“Those kinds of things can be fixed with this new project,” Peters said, referencing traffic flow concerns. “There’s older scanning equipment there, and some of the buildings need to be reconfigured. So, that was all explained to us. And it was pretty apparent that those were changes that were needed.”

Peters’ group would go on to Detroit later in the day Friday to continue CBP appearances at the construction site of the Gordie Howe International Bridge.

The presence of the CBP head was “certainly a change from years past,” adding he thought it was a positive development for the state’s ports of entry.

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.

This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: U.S. Sen. Gary Peters makes stop at Blue Water Bridge plaza