POE traffic shift pending
CALEXICO — International travelers are being advised that northbound vehicle inspection lanes at the newly expanded Calexico-West land port of entry are projected to soon become operational.
Although ongoing construction at the facility prevents officials from providing a definitive date for the northbound lanes’ opening, it is expected to happen soon enough.
“At this point we know that it’s in the ballpark of mid-September,” said Virginia Mendoza, Imperial County Transportation Commission senior transportation planner.
On Thursday, local and state transportation officials held an open house to inform the public about the pending traffic shifts related to the ongoing $98 million downtown port of entry Phase 1 expansion project and the upcoming Cesar Chavez Boulevard road-widening project.
“Dealing with the multiple projects really requires a higher level of coordination among the agencies involved,” Mendoza said.
The eventual opening of the expanded port of entry’s northbound lanes will also result in the official transfer of all personal vehicle traffic away from the old facility over to the newly expanded facility.
Since July 10, motorists traveling to Mexicali have been using the newly expanded facility’s southbound lanes, accessible via its entrance at Second Street and Cesar Chavez Boulevard.
Northbound traffic from Mexicali will also enter Calexico at the Second Street and Chavez Boulevard intersection, instead of at Imperial Avenue, as currently is the case.
Once the new northbound lanes are operational, motorists will be diverted either onto eastbound or westbound Second Street, while a limited amount of traffic, including local traffic, buses and recreational vehicles, will be allowed to use northbound Chavez Boulevard.
Access to northbound Chavez Boulevard is being limited on account of construction that is scheduled to get underway Wednesday as part of a $6 million road-widening project.
The city intends to have northbound and southbound traffic limited to one lane each throughout the duration of the Chavez Boulevard construction.
“We expect that the project will be completed in mid-March 2019,” said Lily Falomir, the city’s Public Works Department manager.
Currently, Chavez Boulevard has just one lane each for northbound and southbound traffic. The road widening project will create two northbound lanes, as well as two southbound lanes that will expand to three lanes south of Fifth Street.
“That will help a lot of the traffic going southbound,” Falomir said.
Once a definitive date is provided for the opening of the northbound vehicle inspection lanes, the city will re-stripe portions of Second Street nearest the new port of entry to divert northbound traffic accordingly.
The re-striping will take place at night in order to limit the impact to motorists using the expanded port of entry, Falomir said.
The port of entry’s pending traffic shift has county Supervisor John Renison “cautiously optimistic” that traffic bottlenecks will lessen.
Renison said the pending diversion of all vehicle traffic to the expanded port of entry facility, coupled with the eventual completion of the Chavez Boulevard project, should help reduce international travelers’ border wait times, as intended.
“I think the full effect will be felt in the fall of 2019,” he said.
In the meantime, local stakeholders remain hopeful that Congress will allocate funding for the downtown port of entry’s Phase 2 construction by year’s end.
“Were hoping it can get approved in November and then it could begin construction within a year,” Renison said.
Phase 2 would add six additional northbound lanes to the 10 that are scheduled to become operational next month.
Phase 2, estimated to cost about $248 million, would also add a new pedestrian processing facility, administrative offices, five southbound inspection lanes and include the demolition of the existing port facility.
Once completed, Phase 1 will have added 10 new northbound inspection lanes, five new southbound inspection lanes, as well as a command center for Customs and Border Protection.