Mexico Starts Work On New Cross-Border Texas Bridge

The Associated Press reports that work has begun on the Mexican side of a cross-border bridge between Tornillo, Texas, and Mexico’s Chihuahua state – a site well east of the twin cities of Ciudad Juárez and El Paso, chosen to relieve heavy international cargo traffic at those cities’ port of entry. Construction on the US side of the border, in El Paso County, has been going on for eighteen months already on the 117-acre project, which is set to replace a much smaller two-lane bridge and customs office in Fabens, Texas, about half a mile away.

Efforts on the Mexican side of the border have lagged behind those on the American side since the project was announced in July 2011. Cesar Duarte, the governor of Chihuahua state, said then that crews would begin work within two months, according to the AP, but as late as mid 2013, no money had as yet been appropriated for the bridge. The project is part of an ongoing push by many federal and border-state authorities in both countries to ramp up infrastructure along the border in an effort to boost international trade there. Recent projects include a foot-traffic bridge connecting the Tijuana Airport to that of San Diego.

Traffic congestion at ports of entry is frequently cited as an obstacle in that push. Flavio Olivieri, Executive Director of the Tijuana Economic Development Corporation – a non-profit which provides business solutions to countries looking to invest near the border – told the website of the California Economic Summit earlier this month that over 60 million people cross the San Ysidro Port of Entry between Tijuana and San Diego every year. “Time lost at the border crossing because of a lack of infrastructure has an economic impact on the region,” Olivieri said.