Some future maintenance projects at the Blue Water Bridge have been put on hold due to declining tolls at the international span.
The pandemic has caused overall traffic volume to decrease by 55 per cent during the 2020 calendar year, resulting in a 35 per cent drop in revenue.
Right now there's about an 80 per cent decline in passenger car traffic, but truck volume is pretty much into seasonal norms.
Federal Bridge Corporation (FBCL) Director of Communications Todd Kealey said their multi-year maintenance plan has been delayed.
"Within the next five years we had a plan to do a lot of resurfacing work on the bridges themselves, a lot of asphalt and repair to underlying concrete." said Kealey. "But a lot of those plans are now on hold until we have a better sense of when a regular revenue stream will be established."
He said it's difficult to predict how long that will take.
"Because we're an entity of the Government of Canada, what we've told the Crown is that right now we're forecasting the [border] closures to remain in place until April 1, 2022. The hope is that's the worst case scenario, and that things will improve."
Kealey said the good news is crews were able to complete some work over the summer, including resurfacing at the plaza and updated signage and lighting.
He said they had to fund those projects through long-term capital reserves.
Kealey said the steady truck traffic is allowing them to "keep the lights on", and staffing levels have not been impacted.