EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The El Paso County Economic Development Department is conducting a nearly $2 million dollar study that will look at commercial traffic at the Tornillo port of entry.
County officials said the goal is to see how commercial traffic can increase at the port with the end goal being to prove that it is a viable option.
“A lot of the study is going to be focused on identifying what the operational or mobility efficiencies are of potentially using the Tornillo port of entry. But it also be to help us identify what are those next steps. What are those things that might increase; cargo lane or traffic, commercial traffic,” Cristian Martinez, department manager of the Economic Development Department said.
The study comes after the U.S. federal government announced last month that they are moving ahead with a plan to improve and upgrade the Bridge of the Americas (BOTA) that would exclude north- and southbound commercial traffic.
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) says that the public now has until Monday, Nov. 4 to comment before they move forward with their decision to ban commercial traffic at BOTA.
Officials at the Zaragoza and Santa Teresa ports of entry said if the commercial ban does happen at BOTA they are expecting a spike in traffic at their ports.
At Santa Teresa, officials say they’ve already received a study that could lead to more lanes.
“The General Services Administration, GSA, just did a feasibility study on modernizing and expanding the Santa Teresa port of entry. What they recommended in that study is that we go from three northbound commercial lanes to 14, and they are recommending that we go from four northbound private vehicle lanes to 12 and then adding a couple more lanes going into Mexico,” the president of the Border Industrial Association Jerry Pacheco said.
KTSM also spoke to a few truckers who told us that both the Tornillo and Santa Teresa ports pose some issues; they are both far and the Tornillo port is not the safest.
“I’ve never known of anything, but there’s talk that the mafia is there that controls that part of Juarez, so the fear is that they would assault us and rob our trucks,” Edgar Garcia, a trucker, said.
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