Mexico and the United States are planning a new US $100-million border crossing between Tijuana and San Diego.

An official with the federal Transportation and Communications Secretariat (SCT) said the new border crossing, to be known as Otay Mesa II, will cover 314,773 square meters and be located three kilometers east of the first Otay Mesa crossing.

Cedric Escalante Sauri explained that Mexican authorities are in the process of obtaining the rights-of-way for the highway that will lead to the crossing and that tenders will be invited to operate the concession.

The Tijuana-San Diego crossing is the busiest along the entire border in terms of private vehicles and pedestrian traffic, according to Escalante.

He said there are 54 border crossings in total and that the value of trade shipped by highway between the nations in 2017 was worth $384.7 million, while $79.9 million in goods were shipped by rail.

Of the eight biggest border crossings Tijuana-San Diego sees the highest volume of passenger vehicles, buses and pedestrians with 30%, 38% and 30% of the total respectively.

In terms of cargo trucks, the Nuevo Laredo-Laredo crossing between Tamaulipas and Texas is the biggest with 2.2 million crossings per year.

Source: Revista Transportes y Turismo (sp)