After 10 years, new sidewalk is constructed at Peace Arch State Park

Peace Arch State Park now has a new sidewalk from the border towards the U.S. customs building.

That may not sound like a big deal, but the 413-foot red brick walkway is the culmination of 10 years’ work on the part of Washington state parks staff, with the help of local, state, national and international partners.

The sidewalk, which is six and a half feet wide, offers a significant safety improvement to the area around the border.

“Before, people were using strollers and wheelchairs and walking by foot on the road, so there was a need for a sidewalk,” said Jason Snow, who spearheaded the project.

Peace Arch is jointly managed by Washington State Parks and B.C. Provincial Parks. A brick sidewalk already stretched from the Canadian customs building to the border, running along I-5 and parallel to the Peace Arch monument.

According to Snow, B.C. Parks installed their sidewalk just before the 2010 winter Olympics. At that time, the U.S. was in the middle of a recession, and the state could not afford to fund the project. Funding did not come through until 2017-2018.

On the Washington side, Snow oversaw the project, but his staff had support from Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), General Services Administration, the Whatcom Council of Governments, the International Boundary Commission in Washington D.C., the cities of Blaine and Surrey, Canadian Border Services Agency and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The project required 80-plus trips through U.S. customs with truckloads of dirt, gravel and sand. WSDOT arranged for flaggers, signage and I-5 lane closures as park staff, including staff from neighboring Birch Bay State Park, constructed the walkway.

“Not too many people know how much time it takes just to get something like this done, only because of the location itself, said Snow. “You’ve got to take the freeway. Everything we did was via the freeway.”

The sidewalk was constructed by staff who had to juggle this with their normal duties. “The park staff also had work to do in the park,” said Snow. “At the same time we were doing this, we were operating a busy park with the events and things that keep that park busy, and we were doing that short-staffed.”

The relocation of the obelisk marking the border by 20 feet required intense discussions between international agencies. In the last 10 years, staff at various agencies has changed, causing progress to halt several times.

Funded largely by the state parks’ Clean, Green and be Seen program, the project cost less than $35,000 and was completed between May 2018 and March 2019.

There is still some work to be done, said Snow. Staff need to finish the topping sand and go back through and plant grass seed, he said.

“I’m very proud of it,” said Snow. “It removes a significant safety hazard, because people don’t have to walk on the shoulder of I-5 to get to the park anymore.”

He also says the red brick road is not just a sidewalk. “It’s international,” he said. “It’s uniting. It’s a big deal.”