Highway 402 finally gets a truckstop

SARNIA, Ont. — Truck drivers who regularly use the Bluewater Bridge crossing between Sarnia, Ont., and Port Huron, Mi., finally have a place to call home on the 100-km stretch of Highway 402 between the U.S./Canada border and London, Ont. It’s the first truck stop to be built on what is an increasingly busy road.

The new Sarnia Service Centre, just east of Sarnia at Reeces Corner, is at the junction of Highway 21, Exit 25. Owned and operated by Sarbjit Dhillon and family, it features a Shell Canada Access Cardlock facility. There are two cardlock fuel islands and three full-service high-speed diesel islands, as well as eight self-serve gasoline pumps.

The 24-hour, seven-day facility also sports a full-service restaurant, a convenience store featuring truck supplies, accessories and Shell Lubricants, a driver’s lounge with satellite television, four private showers, and a coin laundry. Overnight truck parking on the 21-acre site is free for trucker customers. There are no mechanical services on site, but Dhillon says he’s contracted a local shop to be on call.

The Dhillon family also operates two other truckstops in the area, both on Highway 401, at Tilbury and Chatham. But Sarbjit Dhillon says the Sarnia facility will do twice as much business as the other two, especially when the twinning of the Bluewater Bridge is complete next year.