Background

The 2021 Texas-Mexico Border Transportation Master Plan developed by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) determined in its regional summary for the Rio Grande Valley/Tamaulipas region that economic growth, spurred by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), will most likely result in a near tripling of commercial vehicle traffic at the border by 2050, which is expected to strain the border processing capabilities at land ports of entry (LPOEs) and could lead to significant congestion at border crossings in the region.

Description

The project consists of the construction of commercial inspection facilities on the U.S. side of the Anzalduas LPOE to support the processing of loaded southbound and northbound commercial vehicles. The northbound facility will also incorporate essential elements in order to implement Unified Cargo Processing (UCP), which allows Mexican customs officers to work alongside U.S. customs officers to inspect and process shipments of cargo destined for the United States. The AIB was the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified LPOE facility along the U.S.-Mexico border and will pursue LEED certification for the new facilities.

Benefits 

Expanding the facilities at the Anzalduas International Bridge, along with the necessary infrastructure on the Mexican side of the border under a separate project, will permit southbound and northbound loaded commercial vehicle traffic to cross at an additional bridge in the region, leading some commercial traffic to be diverted from the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge. This diversion will reduce net crossing times at both bridges, resulting in a net reduction in the emission of greenhouse gases and criteria pollutants from commercial traffic. For the first year of operation, this reduction is projected to include approximately 19,563 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂), 131 metric tons of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and 54 metric tons of carbon monoxide (CO), among others.