U.S. – Canada Border Data Warehouse

The Whatcom Council of Governments developed a border-wide portal to historical border wait-time (BWT) data for all U.S.-Canada crossing locations that have a BWT system.

Location

The U.S. – Canada Border Data Warehouse currently stores data the Peace Bridge in Buffalo, NY/Fort Erie, ON; and the Lewiston/Queenston Bridge in Niagara, NY/Niagara Falls, ON. It also stores data from the Cascade Gateway Border Data Warehouse.

Why this project was needed

Stakeholder agencies as well as headquarters offices who took an early interest in and supported development of the Cascade Gateway Border Data Warehouse have acknowledged it as a success. As U.S. and Canadian federal agencies  begin to install wait time systems at the twenty busiest ports along the U.S. – Canada border, the Border Wait Time (BWT) Working Group defined an objective to archive resulting data in a national archive for ongoing analyses, improved performance measurement, and improvement of regional border data. The Niagara region is the first installation site under the BWT working group effort. This project advanced the objective of providing an archive based on a successful model already serving constituent agencies in a busy cross-border corridor.

Results

The project began in the fall of 2012 and completed in spring 2014.

Due to a lack of maintenance funding, the collected data were archived at the end of 2017 and the website taken down.

Cost

$490,000

Funding & Partnerships

This project was funded by:

• Transport Canada: $245,000
• U.S. Federal Highway Administration: $100,000
• WA State Department of Transportation: $145,000