Afternoon traffic heading into the U.S. builds up at the San Luis Port of Entry in San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora, 2011.
Three ports along Arizona’s border with Mexico will be getting upgrades funded by the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed last year.
The Biden administration and the General Services Administration announced plans to spend about $3.4 billion to build and modernize 26 land ports along the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada. Those include Arizona’s San Luis Port of Entry, and a two-port project in Douglas.
Officials say the planned upgrades are long overdue.
"A lot of these land ports are beyond their useful life and their capacity," said GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan.
"It's worth knowing that the average age of the land ports we're going to be working on is 40 years old, and despite the fact that trade has grown tremendously over the last years — about 8% a year," she said. "What that means of course is longer wait times at these borders for the 160,000 passenger vehicles and 34,000 trucks that cross every day our borders, carrying billions of dollars of goods."
Carnahan said the port projects will expand capacity, upgrade technology and improve energy efficiency, which should facilitate trade and reduce delays for pedestrians, passenger vehicles and commercial trucks.
The GSA hopes to award some contracts — including one for the San Luis port — by the end of the year.
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