Borderland industry leaders speak on traffic impacts of removing semi-trucks from BOTA

SANTA TERESA, New Mexico (KVIA) -- ABC-7 has reported the proposed alternatives for modernizing the Bridge of the Americas, including removing commercial traffic. Chamizal neighborhood residents have protested for years due to the pollution levels in this area caused by the hundreds of semi trucks that cross through 'BOTA' daily.

ABC-7 reached out to the President of the Border Industrial Association in Santa Teresa, NM, Jerry Pacheco who said local imports and exports were already tested when Texas Governor Greg Abbott stationed Texas DPS troopers at the El Paso Ports of Entry for secondary inspections.

When these Texas DPS inspections were conducted, the crossings at the Santa Teres POE went up from 700 semi-trucks a day to about 1,400.

"Our Customs and Border Protection personnel handle it professionally. Of course, the waiting times got a little longer, but I was very proud, and I was very surprised that we could handle, virtually a doubling of traffic here and still keep the logistics flowing," Pacheco said.

For Pacheco, the Santa Teresa area proved that they are a reliever route when these things happen in El Paso.

President Pacheco also confirmed, that they recently finished the U.S. General Services Administration's feasibility study for the expansion and modernization of the Santa Teresa POE.

Now the next step to make this modernization a reality is for the Santa Teresa bridge to be on GSA's priority list for projects in 2025.

"So as BOTA gets shut down and reconstructed, it's going to take a few years, obviously, and we're hoping that what happens is that because we're down a port of entry, that GSA puts us on the priority list to be able to expand the Santa Teresa Port of Entry. So by the time BOTA opens and if it opens without commercial traffic, we can accommodate all of that," President Pacheco said.

Currently, the Santa Teresa bridge is seeing between 650 to 700 northbound crossings per day; about half of that are crossing southbound back to Mexico.

"We also advocate not only for the expansion of infrastructure for the port of entry. The infrastructure is beautiful, but it doesn't do us any good if we can't get extra CBP personnel. So, having 14 lanes is great, but not so great if we could only have six open. So, we're working with our congressional delegation to try to get funding for CBP to have extra personnel, not just here, but at other ports of entry where they're short in terms of personnel, Pacheco added.