New Port of Entry in Tijuana Opens Sandra Dibble - San Diego Union-Tribune
go to original October 25, 2012

The U.S. government plans to build a permanent connection between I-5 and El Chaparral once Congress provides funding. (flickr)

TIJUANA — Mexican customs inspectors processed passenger vehicles at the El Chaparral port of entry for the first time Wednesday morning, seven days before its scheduled formal opening.

The new lanes are west of the current southbound access lanes at Puerta Mexico. El Chaparral will triple the southbound inspection capacity at the world’s busiest land border crossing.

At 11 a.m. Wednesday, Mexican customs inspectors stood at the end of Interstate 5 and waved southbound cars toward the new facility — down a sharp curve that leads to Mexico’s five-lane access road running west along the U.S. border fence.

Traffic at the new port was light at the time, and there were more inspectors than vehicles. Some of the personnel waited at the secondary inspection station, carrying small hand-held computers in preparation for searching vehicles that received a red-light warning at the initial stop.

On the way out, new signs pointed the way to different parts of Tijuana.

A statement Tuesday from Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said that through Oct. 31, El Chaparral’s transitional opening will “allow users to become familiar with the new entry route to Mexico and with the operation of the new installations.”

El Chaparral has “state-of-the-art technology to carry out unobtrusive inspections of vehicles and passengers,” the statement said, promising reduced wait times.

The opening of El Chaparral is part of a massive binational reconstruction of the congested San Ysidro border crossing. The El Chaparral facility is envisioned as a replacement for the existing southbound lanes at Puerta Mexico, which are planned as northbound lanes once the U.S. funds the third phase of its end of the project.

Local government and business leaders have been demanding that Puerta Mexico remain open even after El Chaparral starts operations; they worry that the curve and access road will create a bottleneck during peak periods of vehicle traffic into Mexico.

Mexican President Felipe Calderón said earlier this month that both Puerta Mexico and El Chaparral will be open during an initial transition phase, but he did not say how long that phase would last. Mexican federal authorities have maintained to their U.S. counterparts that Puerta Mexico’s lanes will close on Nov. 1 and the only access to Mexico from then on will be through El Chaparral.

The U.S. government plans to build a permanent connection between I-5 and El Chaparral once Congress provides funding.

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