Lynden–Aldergrove Border Crossing


The Lynden–Aldergrove Border Crossing connects the town of Lynden, Washington with the Aldergrove, British Columbia on the Canada–US border. Canada has had a Customs office at this crossing since 1889, when it was operated out of the Vanetta home several miles north of the border. The Customs office was moved to the border in 1910. In 1919, Canada changed the name of this crossing from "Alder Grove" to "Aldergrove". In the 1940s, Canada built a white two-story border inspection facility that had inspection canopies on both the northbound and southbound lanes. In 1972, it was replaced with a small 437 square foot border inspection facility, which was replaced with a 1,168 square foot facility in 2015.
For many years, the US operated a small brick border station at this crossing. The current 16,421 square foot facility was built by the General Services Administration in 1986, and was named for Inspector Kenneth Ward, who was shot and killed while conducting an inspection at this crossing in 1979.
The roads leading to the border crossing continue south as Washington State Route 539 to Lynden and Bellingham and north as British Columbia Highway 13 towards Aldergrove.

History

Recent improvements

On August 10, 2016, the federal and provincial governments committed $25.5 million to widen Highway 13 from 8th Avenue to 0 Avenue to accommodate new commercial facility, reducing delays at border crossings as well as building a new two lane east-west connection at 3B Avenue from Highway 13 to 264th Street. Work officially started in Summer 2018 with the south section completed on December 9, 2019 with the remaining highway work expected to be completed by spring 2020.