The U.S. Department of Transportation will build a new road and port of entry facility for the San Diego-Baja California border region (Otay Mesa).
The Otay Mesa $150 million project will build a border crossing east of the existing Otay Mesa Port of Entry to provide an alternative for the nearly 3,600 trucks that cross the existing Otay Mesa and Tecate Ports of Entry daily. The ports of entry are operating at capacity.
The project has several benefits. It will reduce congestion by improving the movement of freight to destinations at nearby distribution centers and warehouses at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and Riverside and San Bernardino counties’ mega-distribution centers.
Border security will be enhanced with state-of-the-art Customs and Border Protection inspection equipment, and intelligent transportation technologies will be deployed to increase inspection efficiency and implement dynamic tolling.
The project also is expected to bring economic benefits and jobs to Southern California.
“We moved to finalize this deal so we can help protect our Southern border and crack down on drug trafficking while preventing tax dollars subsidizing pointless Green New Deal priorities,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy said. “This department will continue to clear the previous administration’s unprecedented grants backlog and deliver results.”