East port of entry bridge gets funding

CALEXICO — The state Department of Transportation recently announced the award of $3 million in funds for preliminary work to widen the Route 7 bridge over the All-American Canal near the Calexico-East port of entry.

The funding will specifically go toward pre-design work and compiling an environmental clearance document for the long-awaited project, said Mark Baza, Imperial County Transportation Commission director.

Currently, the heavily-tra cked bridge over the canal has one southbound and two northbound lanes for commercial truck traffic, and one southbound lane and four northbound lanes for personal vehicles.

“We’re adding four lanes altogether,” Baza said. “It’s the maximum amount that we can add to this existing structure.”

Although the widening project’s construction is anticipated to cost about $25 million and has yet to be secured, the $3 million award from the state Transportation Commission helps build momentum.

As part of its e orts, ICTC had also recently submitted an application for grant funds to the federal Build America program.

“We feel very strongly that with the Transportation Commission awarding us those funds we have a great opportunity to get the funding from either the state or the federal government,” Baza said.

The bridge widening project has been pursued since 2012, when stakeholders determined the east port of entry’s entire infrastructure was in need of expansion, Baza said.

Caltrans and federal o cials are calling for an additional six northbound vehicle and commercial truck inspection lanes at the port of entry, Baza said. Northbound commercial truck tra c in particular experiences significant delays.

“Delays at the port of entry have been growing ever since it was built in 1996,” Baza said. “It’s already at capacity.”

In 2013, more than 325,000 commercial trucks and nearly 3.2 million passenger vehicles were processed at the Calexico east port of entry, according to Caltrans.

The east port of entry had also processed $5.8 billion in exports and $7.4 billion in imports, ranking it seventh among U.S. ports of entry in 2013, a Caltrans report stated.

Also, the 700,000 pedestrians the facility processed in 2013 were nearly double the amount processed in 2012.

The awarding of the funds was announced Aug. 22 and was made possible through Caltrans’ Trade Corridor Enhancement Program and funds from Senate Bill 1, aka the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017.

Additional SB 1 funds will likely be used to proceed with the bridge-widening project’s construction, unless a ballot measure aimed at repealing the transportation tax is approved by voters in November, Baza said.

The proposed bridge expansion project is considered a preliminary step toward the proposed Calexico-East port of entry expansion project.

The design and environmental review work for the bridge-widening project will likely get underway early next year, Baza said.

Stakeholders, with the assistance of the region’s statewide and federal public office holders, are also advocating for the nearly $300 million needed to start and complete Phase 2 of the Calexico downtown port of entry expansion project, Baza said.

“That’s the region’s and the state of California’s highest priority,” he said.