The renewal of the San Ysidro and El Chaparral international ports of entry advances.

    On the American side, the 800-foot pedestrian bridge will begin operating within the next couple of weeks and speed up southbound crossings. This will be the first milestone in this $577 million dollar bi-national project expected to be completed by mid-2016.

    With an average 50 thousand vehicles and 25 thousand crossing every day, the San Ysidro Port of Entry (SYPE) is considered world’s busiest land port of entry. But it’s also one of the slowest in the Mexico-United States border, with vehicular crossing times averaging 60 to 90 minutes, a key detractor of economic development in the Tijuana-San Diego region.

    “Within the next two decades traffic at the San Ysidro international border crossing is expected to grow up to 90 percent, which could result in a 9.9 billion dollar economic loss” said Martha Johnson, Administrator with the U.S. General Services Administration, during the groundbreaking ceremony of the new SYPE building on February 24.

    The goal is that once the building is completed waiting times for pedestrian and vehicular crossing will drop to an average 30 minutes.

    The overall project contemplates the demolition of the current 30 year old SYPE building to accommodate the new 225 thousand square feet facilities.

    The historic Customs Building, located east of the border crossing port, will be remodeled. To its left a pedestrian walkway and building will be constructed to process travelers crossing both northbound and southbound.

    The central part of the project will be the building of the 32 northbound primary inspection lanes and booths, capable of doubling their vehicular inspection capacity with additional booths, as well as the northbound secondary inspection facilities, and associated canopies that cover these facilities that will replace the current 24-lane building.

    This expansion will require redirecting the southernmost portion of Interstate 5 towards the 16 lane vehicle exit building west of the SYPE, equipped inspection booths and additional facilities to meet the safety and operation requirements of the Customs and Border Protection agents during their routine inspection of southbound vehicles.

    On the west end of the SYPE a building will be constructed to process deported immigrants and travelers crossing both northbound and southbound.

The Mexican Project

    South of the border the Mexican Federal Government is working on their part of the renewal of the international border port, with an investment of $580 million pesos in the construction of the vehicular border crossing building and four bridges to redirect transit going into Tijuana, as well as a civic and commercial plaza in the middle of the project.

   For the Mexican Federal Government this is “one of the most complete, modern and competitive projects to solve the problems accumulated throughout the years in this border region”.

   The first two bridges, built by Mexico’s Secretary of Transport and Communication, are expected to be completed sometime next month after a three month delay. The two other bridges are planned to be completed by the end of this year, however, the delays in the first phase of the project could hold up the construction process.

   The final two stages of the border project are also scheduled to begin 2011, which include the building of the 19 lane vehicular entrance to Mexico, known as El Chaparral. The fourth phase will consist in the demolition of the current customs building located next to the current vehicle entrance to Tijuana, to give space for more northbound lanes heading into the U.S. The entire project is expected to be completed by 2013.

   The master project also includes the building of a civic plaza in the middle of the border port known as the Bicentennial Door, said Salvador Vega Casillas, Secretary of the Mexican Ministry of Public Administration, during the February 24 ceremony.

   Vega said last year the Mexican Federal Government built three international border crossing ports along the Mexico-United States border, after more than a decade without investing in border infrastructure.

    As a part of it’s plan to improve the international crossing ports the Mexican Federal Government will invest over 1.17 million pesos in eight infrastructure projects like Puerta México, Mesa de Otay I and II in Tijuana, as well as the ports in Mexicali and Tecate.