Peace Bridge Authority

The Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority (the “Authority”) is an international compact entity created pursuant to a compact entered into by the State of New York, with the consent of the United States Congress, and by the Government of Canada. The Authority is governed by a ten member Board consisting of five members from New York State and five members from Canada. The mission of the Authority is to be known as the premier Canada/U.S. international border crossing, providing excellence in customer service and an effective conduit for trade and tourism.

The Authority’s principal asset and source of revenues is the “Peace Bridge”, a major international toll crossing spanning the Niagara River between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, New York. The Authority also derives significant revenues in the form of rental and fee income from the United States Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, Public Works and Government Services Canada, United States and Canadian duty-free shops and commercial brokers operating on the property owned by the Authority and from leases of communication conduits spanning the Peace Bridge. In addition to being a principal artery in the Niagara Frontier of travel and commerce between the United States and Canada, the Peace Bridge is a vital link to long-distance, interstate travel and international trade.

The Peace Bridge is located near the center of downtown Buffalo, New York and Fort Erie, Ontario, where it crosses the Niagara River. The Peace Bridge is one of four vehicular toll crossings over the Niagara River in the Buffalo-Niagara region. The other three crossings are the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge, the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge and the Rainbow Bridge, each of which is owned and operated by the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission and all of which are located more than 20 highway miles north of the Peace Bridge. Of the four bridges, the Peace Bridge and Lewiston-Queenston Bridge carry a greater percentage of vehicles with non-local destinations because of their connections to major arterials. Consequently, there is a greater amount of commercial traffic on the Peace Bridge and the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge.

The Peace Bridge measures 3,580 feet in length from abutment to abutment. The roadway is 36 feet wide from curb to curb with two six-foot pedestrian sidewalks on either side of the bridge. The superstructure of the Peace Bridge consists of riveted steel with reinforced concrete deck slabs and a latex modified concrete wearing surface. The Peace Bridge was originally designed to support two lanes of 20-ton trucks and two tracks for 40-ton trolleys. Although the supporting structural steel is in place to support the trolley tracks, the tracks were never installed. Today, the Peace Bridge has been modified to a three-lane bridge with twelve-foot wide lanes, able to accommodate heavy-duty commercial loads. The center lane of this three-lane bridge is reversible, allowing for two-lane operation in one direction during peak hours. The main approaches to the Peace Bridge on the United States side are the New York State Thruway (I-190) and Porter Avenue, a four-lane arterial. On the Canadian side, the principal approach highways are the Queen Elizabeth Way (“QEW”), a four-lane controlled-access highway, Highway 3, a regional four-lane highway and the Niagara Parkway. Tolls are collected one-way only on crossing from the United States into Canada.

The Peace Bridge is rigorously inspected annually even though the state requirement is every two years. In addition, a visual inspection is performed after any significant seismic activity, flood, or impact event. The 2007 annual inspection found the structural condition of the Peace Bridge to be generally good, receiving a National Bridge Inventory Sufficiency Rating of 55% out of a possible 55%. The primary structural steel members and concrete substructures are functioning as intended in the original design. The load carrying capability of the bridge is adequate for the current design loads.

Beginning in 1851, there were numerous attempts to construct a bridge over the Niagara River between the City of Buffalo, New York and Fort Erie, Ontario. In 1922 and 1923, respectively, the State of New York and the Government of Canada each incorporated a company under the name Buffalo and Fort Erie Peace Bridge Company. By agreement dated June 13, 1925, the United States and Canada and the private owners of the companies consolidated the two companies into a single international company known as The Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Company. This company was formed to evaluate the feasibility and practicality of a bridge spanning the Niagara River. Later, this company oversaw the plans for procuring money to construct the bridge, oversaw its construction, and eventually managed the bridge.

The Peace Bridge was completed and officially opened to traffic in 1927. Its name came from the commemoration of more than 100 years of peace between the United States and Canada. After the original private company experienced financial difficulties, the Authority was created as a public entity in 1933 pursuant to legislation to purchase the assets and rights of the private company, to take title to the Peace Bridge, and serve as the successor in interest to the original international company.

The Authority is authorized under its legislation to establish and collect such tolls and charges as are necessary to produce at all times sufficient revenues to meet its expenses of maintenance and operation, to pay, as the same shall become due, the principal of and interest on bonds of the Authority, and to fulfill the terms of any agreement made with the holders of the bonds until such bonds and the interest thereon are fully met and discharged.

Title to the property and assets of the Authority is vested in the Authority until July 1, 2020 or until all of the bonds issued by the Authority have been paid or discharged, whichever is later. Thereafter, the powers, jurisdiction and duties of the Authority cease and the property and assets acquired and held by the Authority within the State of New York or within Canada shall be under the jurisdiction of the State of New York and Canada, respectively.

Since 1923, the Authority and its predecessor, the Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Company, have held pursuant to Canadian law an exclusive franchise under Canadian law to construct and operate a bridge across the Niagara River. The law provides that “no other bridge for a like purpose shall be constructed or located at any point nearer than six miles from the location of the bridge of [the Authority], except with the consent of [the Authority] or of the Governor in Council”. By letter to the Authority dated November 30, 2004, Transport Canada confirmed the Authority’s exclusive six-mile franchise.

The Authority has the power to acquire, hold and dispose of real and personal property for its corporate purposes. The Authority was granted limited eminent domain power by an amendment to its organizing legislation in New York State which became law on July 27, 2004. The limited eminent domain power may be used by the Authority to acquire property surrounding the site of the preferred project alternative for the capacity expansion project on the U.S. side. The power is limited to acquisition of properties required to implement the preferred project alternative arising out of the Bi-National Integrated Environmental Review Process. Acquisition proceedings must be commenced within ten years of enactment of the legislation. The Authority does not have expropriation rights in Canada. The Authority has no taxing power and its obligations are not a debt of the State of New York or the government of Canada.