Work at border crossing nearly done
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20040514-9...
Relief, concern cited over transit project
By Janine Z??iga
May 14, 2004
SAN YSIDRO ? For the past 2? years streets were filled with dirt, trolley tracks were torn out and fences blocked construction areas, but now the mess
is nearly gone.
Workers are about to complete a $25 million transit and pedestrian project at the border.
Daily border crossers have become accustomed to the disruption caused by the San Ysidro Intermodal Transportation Center project, designed to help
ease traffic for bus and trolley riders.
While some locals who live or have business in the area are relieved the project will be complete by mid-June, others are concerned with problems they
say were introduced during construction and old ones that may continue to linger.
Others, however, say they fear traffic in the area may be worse because people will be confused by the new layout. They say pedestrians who pay no
heed to new signals at busy intersections are accidents waiting to happen.
Still others say they cannot believe that at the world's busiest land-border crossing, over which 140,000 people travel daily, and at the city's
busiest transit center, which sees 22,000 passengers daily, there is no permanent police station nor are there any public restrooms.
"We have a big, big bathroom issue," said Israel Adato, president of the San Ysidro Chamber of Commerce. "How can you have such a large border entry
point and have no place for people to relieve themselves, except behind the buildings?"
Officials with the former Metropolitan Transit Development Board (now Metropolitan Transit System), the agency building the 5-acre project, say it
will change the look of the border and make it a much nicer place.
Previously, the border was a free-for-all of pedestrians, bicycles, buses, jitneys, delivery trucks, taxis and the trolley ? all on San Ysidro
Boulevard, a crowded, two-lane roadway divided by the trolley.
Pete d'Ablaing, the transportation engineer in charge of the project, said he understands the community's concerns since the project originally was
supposed to take 18 months. He said there were several problems, such as underground utilities not being where they were supposed to be, that pushed
the schedule back.
D'Ablaing said the project, when completed, will offer visitors a spacious pedestrian plaza with bus shelters, ticket booths, new signage and
lighting, decorative paving, a turnabout for access to local transportation carriers and landscaping that includes 30 new queen palm trees.
D'Ablaing said there will be a learning curve for drivers and pedestrians in the area. He said crews will work over the next three to four weeks to
make adjustments to the timing and direction of traffic signals.
D'Ablaing said MTDB's policy has always been that it does not provide restrooms it must maintain in transit projects. In the case of Old Town, MTDB
worked with agencies who agreed to maintain restrooms it provided.
"At the Old Town station, state parks officials maintain the restrooms," d'Ablaing said. "We were always willing to provide restrooms (in San Ysidro)
but there was never a budget or anybody with a plan."
Regarding the police station, d'Ablaing said the intermodal project will provide a concrete pad, ready for water and sewer hookups, which will allow
San Diego Police to build a permanent station with a private bathroom, if a future city budget allows. Until then, police will continue to work out of
a trailer near the turnabout.
Local transportation carriers say they have concerns of their own. At least nine San Ysidro-Tijuana shuttle companies have gone out of business since
construction began. Some attribute the shut-downs to more than the intermodal project, saying higher insurance rates after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks
and stricter regulations in Mexico contributed to the problem.
However, Manuel Mendivil, vice president of the area's oldest shuttle service, Mexicoach, said the problem began with construction of the intermodal
project. Shuttles were relocated to the second-to-last stop on the system's Blue Line.
"We're in the tourist business," said Mendivil, who also is the secretary of the Border Transportation Council. "People get off at San Ysidro, the
closest station to the border. If you're not there, they're just going to walk across."
Other carriers say they are concerned about who will manage 10 bus bays that were created as part of the intermodal project. Originally, MTDB
officials planned to use the second floor of a building on San Ysidro Boulevard that houses a McDonald's as a bus terminal. But the project never got
off the ground.
D'Ablaing said MTS is overseeing a plan to find a company to manage the bus bays, which may be used for any of the local carriers.
Three bids for the bus bay management were submitted, including one from the Border Transportation Council. A decision is expected by the MTS board
May 27, d'Ablaing said.
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