BajaNews
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San Ysidro crossings could speed up during demolition
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/aug/19/san-ysidro-bo...
Written by Robert J. Hawkins
Aug. 19, 2011
SAN YSIDRO — Even though demolition at the San Ysidro Port of Entry will be closing as many as five re-entry lanes at a time in the next few months,
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said Thursday that traffic may actually flow faster through the busiest border crossing in the Western
Hemisphere.
That message will come as a welcome relief to the 50,000 drivers who pass through the port on average every day, although that’s not the message that
people have been hearing in recent months.
“We didn’t get a clear message out about not closing lanes,” said the Customs and Border unit’s project manager Oscar Preciado.
While traffic will be “channeled" into fewer lanes, Preciado said, the pace shouldn’t slacken because Customs will be opening additional inspection
booths at each gateway to process two vehicles at a time. The so-called “stacked booths” are being used at other border crossings according to
officials and have proven efficient.
In fact, Preciado said, “we hope to increase traffic capacity” during the next phase of construction.
San Ysidro is undergoing a massive, three-phase, $577-million reconstruction which requires the contractors to tear down existing structures that sit
directly over the top of the 24 lanes of wall-to-wall, bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Since June , the Colorado-based Hansel Phelps Construction Co. has been “surgically” dismantling the sprawling administration complex above the
traffic. Central to the process is a towering yellow crane that dominates the border landscape.
The crane has been lowering huge steel “debris boxes” through holes in the roof of the building where crews fill them with demolition debris,
according to General Services Administration project manager Damon Yee.
“They have been dismantling the building piece by piece, section by section, so as not to close off the traffic flow ,” said Yee, and mostly at night
when traffic levels dip.
Beneath the building, a plywood ceiling has been erected and held into place by suspended scaffolding to protect passing vehicles from falling debris.
The workers call it the “dance floor,” according to Hansel Phelps site manager Jeff Wellenstein.
Starting at the end of August through Thanksgiving, the project enters a particularly tricky phase as remaining shell of the building must come down.
To accomplish this, processing booth areas will be closed off as each section is torn down, affecting up to five lanes.
When it comes to figuring out which lanes are functional, Customs and Border Protection will try to remove the guess work for border travelers. A
traffic engineer in Tijuana has been contracted to design a strategy for channeling vehicles to the “stacked booth” gateways.
By the end of August, Customs will have operating 10 gateways with “stacked booths” to process two vehicles simultaneously, said Preciado.
Recently appointed port director Frank Jaramillo said that at no time will the port’s ability to process 24 lanes of traffic be reduced.
When completed, the reconfiguration and expansion of San Ysidro will have 62 northbound inspection booths, expanded processing facilities, a dedicated
bus lane and express lanes for the “trusted traveler” programs – SENTRI and Ready Lane vehicles.
This first phase is fully funded and is on track to be completed by the summer of 2014, officials say.
The second phase, which includes the construction of the new administration building and pedestrian route and Phase 3, the realignment and expansion
of I-5 south with expanded capacity and a transit center on the Mexican side of the border are as yet unfunded.
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SFandH
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I heard on the radio that the construction of improvements may stop because of budget cuts.
[Edited on 8-20-2011 by SFandH]
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woody with a view
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my company is bidding on a slice of the pie...... wouldn't that be cool?
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woody with a view
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maybe. you voted for change, right? don't make that mistake next time.....
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Woooosh
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"When it comes to figuring out which lanes are functional, Customs and Border Protection will try to remove the guess work for border travelers. A
traffic engineer in Tijuana has been contracted to design a strategy for channeling vehicles to the “stacked booth” gateways."
we're screwed. 
\"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing\"
1961- JFK to Canadian parliament (Edmund Burke)
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conquestkm
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Mood: "I could have been a Rhodes Scholar, except for my grades."
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REGION: San Ysidro border project could be delayed by lack of funding
By EDWARD SIFUENTES esifuentes@nctimes.com | Posted: Tuesday, August 16, 2011 5:30 am
Completion of the $577 million San Ysidro Port of Entry renovation could be delayed unless Congress allocates more money to finish the project,
officials said during a state Assembly committee hearing held last week in San Diego.
Traffic delays at the border and an aging infrastructure have cost the region billions of dollars in international commerce, business leaders and
regional planners.
The renovation project would allow vehicle and pedestrian traffic to flow more easily through the border between Mexico and the United States at San
Ysidro.
Business groups say completion of the project is important to boost the region's economy.
The first phase of the project, which includes increasing the number of northbound inspection booths from 24 to 62 and costs $292 million, was funded
by Congress in previous years.
However, no money has been allocated for the project's second and third phases, which include a new customs administration building and a new
pedestrian processing facility, as well as moving the southbound lanes of Interstate 5 further west to connect with Tijuana roads.
That puts the 2016 completion date in jeopardy, said Abdee Gharavi, director of the U.S. General Services Administration's land ports of entry
program. The agency is responsible for building and maintaining federal government facilities. "The federal budget environment has cast a shadow on
our ability to maintain this project's projected time line," Gharavi said.
Gharavi was one of several officials who spoke at a hearing of the Assembly's California-Mexico Bi-National Affairs committee headed by Assemblyman
Ben Hueso, D-San Diego, Friday afternoon in San Diego. The hearing focused primarily on border infrastructure, international commerce and
environmental problems at the border.
Congress did not set aside money for the project in its 2011 budget, nor is it likely to provide funding in its 2012 budget, Gharavi said."Although
the Senate has not acted yet, the House has authorized zero dollars for GSA's construction program in 2012."
Other border ports of entry improvement projects in Otay Mesa and Calexico face similar funding problems.
"If this trend continues, the projects originally slated for 2013 or later will have to compete with a backlog of projects that did not receive
funding in 2011 or 2012," Gharavi said.
The San Ysidro Port of Entry was built in the 1970s and is in dire need of renovation to cope not only with the increased traffic but new security
measures put in place since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, officials say. New security measures and more traffic have increased border waits
up to three hours during peak times.
When completed, the new San Ysidro border crossing is expected to reduce wait times to about a half an hour, according to GSA officials.
Border delays and the outdated infrastructure have cost the region billions of dollars in international commerce, according to the San Diego
Association of Governments, the region's chief planning agency. In a 2007 study, SANDAG reported that congestion cost the region about $7.2 billion in
economic losses each year. Every day, an estimated 50,000 vehicles and 25,000 pedestrians cross the border at San Ysidro each way. Many of them are
workers with jobs in San Diego County but who live in Tijuana, and consumers who patronize San Diego businesses.
Alejandra Mier y Teran, executive director of the Otay Mesa Chamber of Commerce, told the committee that not only are potential customers staying home
in Tijuana instead of coming to San Diego because of the long border waits, but international companies in Baja California are having problems
connecting with U.S. businesses for supplies for the same reason. "What is hindering trade between California and Mexico?" Teran asked. "I think the
answer is very clear, it's lack of border infrastructure."
Mexico is California's No. 1 trading partner, said Laurie Berman, district director for the California Department of Transportation. A total of $54
billion worth of goods was traded between Mexico and California in 2010, Berman said.
Hueso and other members of the committee said they would like to explore other ways to pay for border infrastructure projects, such as roads leading
to the ports of entry, including public-private partnerships, in which both public and private funds are used to pay for construction.
Conquestkm
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