Tecate opens expanded port of entry
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20050312-9...
By Diane Lindquist
March 12, 2005
TECATE ? With mariachi music, a Mexican children's chorus and Kumeyaay bird songs, a remodeled and expanded port of entry was officially opened here
yesterday.
"I never thought I'd live long enough to see all these changes. It's really impressive," said Jane Dumas of Jamul Indian Village, one of few area
residents who now, over time, has used all three of the border crossings between the Mexican and U.S. towns of Tecate.
The new $18.8 million port of entry, 40 miles southeast of San Diego, has about five times as much space as the existing facility, which was built in
1933. The original crossing was housed in an adobe built in the 1880s for use as a general store.
"The project improves the safety of our officers and the public by separating the various modes of transportation such as passenger cars, trucks and
pedestrians, which up until now have had to share the existing small facility," said U.S. Customs and Border Protection port director Paul Henning.
Two lanes have been built for passenger cars and two lanes for trucks. There's also a separate new pedestrian lane. All are just to the east of the
existing facility and match its historic design.
One of the biggest changes is the addition of three secondary inspection stations, for a total of six. The complex now occupies 13 acres, compared
with 2 acres previously.
A variety of high-technology equipment is also being installed, including radiation portal monitors, license plate readers and a gamma ray scanner.
"We've finished the first crucial phase of a comprehensive rebuilding project that, when complete, will offer a modern, safe environment that
incorporates various new technologies to facilitate legitimate traffic and improve border securities," said Adele Fasano, director of Customs and
Border Protection field operations in San Diego.
Work on renovating the existing facility for offices, training space, conference rooms and detention cells will begin this spring with the goal of
finishing by the end of summer.
A California Highway Patrol inspection station will be built nearby on the same time schedule.
The highlight of yesterday's ceremony, attended by dignitaries, business people and residents from both sides of the border, was the breaking of a
bright red ribbon by the first cargo truck through the commercial crossing.
Fernando P?rez of Benny's Trucking drove a load of Tecate beer from Mexico into the United States. "It's going to make crossing a lot easier," he
said.
Nearly 68,500 trucks were processed through the Tecate port of entry in fiscal year 2004. There were 258 bus crossings and more than 1.26 million
passenger vehicle crossings. Some 430,000 pedestrians also passed through.
The Tecate port of entry renovation and expansion is the first major project to be completed along the California-Mexico border since a second
crossing between Mexicali and Calexico was completed in December 1996.
A new southbound crossing, and expansion of northbound lanes at San Ysidro, is the next big project, said Peter Stamison, regional administrator of
the General Services Administration. Construction is slated to begin in 2007 and be completed by 2012, he said.
There also are plans for a new port of entry east of the Otay Mesa crossing, but no definite timeline has been set.
It's unclear whether the expansion at Tecate will add to truck and car traffic at the port and on the twisty, scenic two-lane Highway 94 to San Diego.
Several area business leaders complained that U.S. officials are not expanding the commercial crossing's hours, which run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Mondays through Fridays. The passenger car and pedestrian crossings are open daily from 6 a.m. to midnight.
"Now they've got two truck lanes," said Gordon Hammers of the Highway 94 Club. "The question is: Are they going to use both truck lanes?"
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