Travel warning for Canada-bound commercial trucks at Lewiston-Queenston bridge lifted

The Lewiston-Queenston Bridge connecting Niagara Falls, Ont., and Niagara Falls, N.Y., photographed on Monday, November 8, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Tijana Martin

A travel warning issued to commercial trucks headed to Canada via the Lewiston-Queenston International Bridge crossing has been lifted.

The Niagara Falls Bridge Commission (NFBC) told truckers on Thursday to avoid the border crossing following a Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) systems outage on Sunday.

During the outage, which was resolved on Tuesday afternoon, agents were forced to perform inspections of commercial shipments manually using paper forms, which led to long lines of commercial trucks at the Lewiston-Queenston crossing and the Peace Bridge.

“The Commission extends its sincere thanks to all transportation and law enforcement partners for their invaluable assistance over the past several days in helping to manage border-related congestion across various roadways and access points in the Western New York region,” the NFBC said.

A spokesperson for the CBSA previously told CTV News that the outage was caused by a data entry problem during routine maintenance and is being investigated.

The NFBC went on to say that while conditions have improved, active monitoring at the border will be “elevated throughout the weekend and into Monday” in anticipation of the resumption of normal commercial traffic volumes next week.

Separately, the CBSA also experienced an outage of its border inspection kiosks at airports across the country on Thursday and Sunday this week, which led to delays for international travellers touching down in Canada on both days.

With files from Bryann Aguilar