By Robert J. McCarthy
A plan announced by Sen. Charles E. Schumer to launch a pilot program for pre-clearing Buffalo-bound truck traffic in Ft. Erie, Ont. won support Tuesday from two key entities.
Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, and the Peace Bridge Authority both weighed in with support.
“With plans for a U.S. Department of Homeland Security pre-inspection pilot at the Peace Bridge and progress, under the leadership of Governor Cuomo, to construct a new plaza we now have the federal and state governments working in unison to increase capacity and predictability at our border," Higgins said. "Finally we have freed the Peace Bridge project from a long bureaucratic holding pattern and we are opening up the bottleneck at this binational transportation corridor that crucial to our interconnected economies.”
Sam Hoyt, chairman of the Peace Bridge Authority, added this statement:
“The PBA remains extremely supportive of the commercial pre-inspection concept and we look forward to its eventual testing and implementation at the Peace Bridge. This innovative border management solution could potentially provide real congestion relief and help us streamline the movement of goods and people at the region’s busiest international border crossing,” Hoyt said.
“With the continued support of U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, U.S. Congressman Brian Higgins, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and many other active federal, state, and local elected leaders, we hope to see the pre-inspection concept proceed to the pilot phase as quickly as possible,” he added.
Brian Meyer spoke with Hoyt about the issue during his In Focus interview:
