‘Freedom Convoy’ protesters cause miles-long traffic jam near US-Canada border in Michigan

PORT HURON, Mich. – Canadian truckers protesting at the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, have caused a miles-long traffic jam at the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron, Michigan, where commercial traffic was rerouted when the Ambassador Bridge was closed to vehicles entering Canada.

Truckers billing themselves the “Freedom Convoy” began blocking lanes Monday on the Canadian side of the Ambassador Bridge, which links Detroit to Windsor, causing a traffic jam that eventually led to the bridge closing down traffic to Canada.

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Exit ramps from the highway to the bridge in Detroit remained closed for a third day on Wednesday, with commercial traffic being rerouted north to Port Huron’s Blue Water Bridge. But the excess traffic trying to cross that bridge has caused a new jam, with traffic backed up nearly nine miles on Interstate 94, leading up to the bridge in Port Huron.

The Ambassador Bridge is typically the busiest crossing on the United States-Canada border, carrying more than 8,000 commercial vehicles on weekdays and nearly 3 million per year. The bridge also carries roughly 27% of all trade between Canada and the United States.

Traffic jammed nine miles from the border south of Port Huron, Michigan’s Blue Water Bridge due to trucker protests in Canada.
(Michael Lee)

All of that traffic has now begun flowing about 67 miles north to the Blue Water Bridge, which typically only carries just over 2,000 commercial vehicles per day.

The bottleneck has caused angst among Canadian authorities, with Ontario Premier Doug Ford calling the protest at the Ambassador Bridge an “illegal occupation” Wednesday.

“The Ambassador Bridge is one of the most…