A designated truck route (DTR) is officially coming to Thunder Bay.
A DTR identifies corridors for truck traffic to use in the city.
City Council has approved the DTR, banning most transport trucks from Highway 102, Arthur Street, and Dawson Road.
Moving forward, truckers will have to use Highway 11/17 instead.
Specifically, any vehicles registered to weight over 15,000 kg.
Vehicles operated for or by the city, emergency vehicles, buses, and utility vehicles are all exempt from the rule.
As are transport trucks delivering or receiving goods in Thunder Bay.
Trucks will be required to drive as far as practical along the new Designated Truck Route during the trip.
They are required to use the shortest possible distance on undesignated city streets to their end destination while still adhering to the weight-restricted streets.
Thunder Bay’s police will be enforcing the new route.
Administration recommended that council approve the truck route as it would provide a safer transportation network for the city while also lowering noise and other concerns of heavy truck traffic on Dawson Road and Arthur Street.
Predictive collision analysis determined that implementing the DTR would result in a decrease in collisions that result in fatalities or injury.
An engineering assessment was completed in 2024 to reaffirm previous findings with new traffic data.
If the DTR is implemented, approximately 1,300 trucks from Dawson Road and about 300 trucks from Arthur Street would change their routes to the TransCanada Highway (Highway 11/17), according to the City of Thunder Bay.
Enforcement of the route is expected to start in roughly 90 days, giving the city a chance to put up new signage, launch an education campaign for the trucking industry, and to have set fines approved.
It is expected that the DTR will be enforceable by this fall.
