Project status: Completed
The Cascade Gateway Border Data Warehouse Upgrade and BIFA Integration project improved upon the existing Cascade Gateway border data warehouse and developed a project architecture based on the Border Information Flow Architecture (BIFA) developed out of the Transportation Border Working Group.
Note: In 2020 this project has been improved as part of the Cascade Gateway Border Data Warehouse 3.0 project.
This project upgraded the existing border wait time data warehouse located at www.borderdata.org. The database stores passenger and commercial vehicle wait times, volume, and other data relating to vehicle traffic at the four Cascade Gateway land ports-of-entry. This project built on investments made in 2016 to integrate U.S. Customs & Border Protection’s (CBP) booth status data system into southbound wait time calculations for border travelers.
The project included software development and online services, but includes data from the four primary land ports-of-entry between the Lower Mainland of British Columbia and Whatcom County, Washington (Peace Arch/Douglas, Pacific Highway, Lynden/Aldergrove, and Sumas/Abbotsford-Huntingdon ports).
The original Cascade Gateway Border Data Warehouse, developed in 2007, needed an upgrade to improve website efficiency, storage capability, and querying tools. This project was seen as an ideal candidate to test the effectiveness of the BIFA template, developed to better capture complex Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) architectures that cross the U.S. – Canada border.
The Cascade Gateway Border Data Warehouse has received a complete upgrade to improve functionality, security, and the quantity of data saved within the system. A full series of reports were developed to describe the process of using the BIFA template to develop a project architecture, and to review and provide guidance to other regions considering the BIFA for their cross-border ITS projects.
The cost of the project was $490,000 (USD). Funding was provided by a partnership of agencies:
Transport Canada
U.S. Federal Highway Administration
WA State Department of Transportation
Contact Melissa Fanucci, Principal Planner, Whatcom Council of Governments by email or phone (360-685-8385).