Traffic warning for the border

Improvement project will shut southbound San Ysidro crossing to vehicles for 57 hours later this month.

SAN YSIDRO, Calif. — To anyone thinking of driving into Tijuana through San Ysidro a couple of weeks from now, the U.S. General Services Administration has some advice: Think again.

For a 57-hour period — from 3 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 23, until noon on Monday, Sept. 25 — the border crossing will be closed to southbound vehicles.

The closure is needed as part of the GSA’s plan to realign the southernmost portion of Interstate 5, a project that launches the third and final phase of the $741-million expansion of the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the busiest land port in the Western Hemisphere.

“The traveling public has the ability to make this either an OK experience or a terrible experience,” Anthony Kleppe, a senior asset manager with the GSA, said Thursday during a news conference. “People need to plan ahead.”

The final phase of the port’s reconstruction, scheduled for completion in June 2019, is expected to ease vehicle congestion at the border. Among the planned improvements is doubling the number of southbound vehicle lanes — from five to 10 — leading to Mexico’s border inspection facility at El Chaparral. Plans also call for eight additional northbound vehicle inspection lanes, for a total of 33.

During the shutdown, all southbound vehicle traffic into Tijuana will be routed down Highway 905 to the Otay Mesa port, nine miles to the east. But with only five inspection lanes, the wait will probably be long.

“If people don’t alter their travel patterns, if everybody tries to head south in their car … then you can expect significant delays of an hour or more,” said Laurie Berman, the California Department of Transportation’s district director in San Diego.

Northbound traffic will not be affected by the operation. And the port’s two pedestrian facilities, northbound and southbound, will remain open.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 70,000 northbound passenger vehicles cross through San Ysidro on an average day; officials estimate the southbound flow is similar.

After the shutdown, southbound drivers could still encounter some delays, particularly during rushhour periods. As the project moves into its next phase, only three southbound lanes will feed into the El Chaparral Port of Entry, a reduction from five in the current configuration.

Once that phase is completed, there will be four lanes for the final 18 months of the project. But authorities hope to avoid any vehicle backlog via a redesigned, softer curve in the road that leads to Mexico’s inspection facility.