SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — This time next year San Diego county is expected to have the new Otay Mesa East Port of Entry open to drivers. The nation’s top transportation leader traveled to San Diego to take a look at the construction progress.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says our land ports are just as important as our water ports, which include Otay Mesa.
“If a truck is waiting, if an important piece of cargo is waiting for hours, that is not only wasting that trucker’s time, that is also delaying and adding costs in our supply chains for wherever those goods are meant to go,” says Buttigieg.
SANDAG says the new port of entry will provide an alternative for nearly 3,600 trucks that cross the border. ABC 10News learned that if this project was not in the works, wait times would be over six hours long by 2040.
“So making sure that we iron out any of the bottlenecks, not only because there is a very high amount of traffic and demand here today but it’s projected to grow an enormous amount by the end of this decade.”
Local leaders including Mayor Todd Gloria, Supervisor Chair Nathan Fletcher, and Supervisor Nora Vargas were there for the secretary’s visit.
The project broke ground back in August.
The Biden Administration awarded $1.5 billion from the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America Grant Program to transportation projects across the U.S. $150 million from the grant went to San Diego for the Otay Mesa East border crossing.
