Sunland Park Council discusses international port of entry

They’ve been talking about it for years, but Tuesday night the Sunland Park City Council started working toward an international port of entry. Councilors listened to a presentation on the status of the still non-existent international bridge. Even after two hours of talking about it, the process has barely even begun.

Project Manager Robert Diaz De Leon spoke about the many economic benefits building a bridge would bring. The port would connect Sunland Park Drive to Avenida Dieciseis de Septiembre in Juarez. But before Sunland Park can anticipate more traffic, retail shops and jobs to come to their city, they’ll have to finish an environmental and traffic study to get their presidential permit.

A traffic study would take up to four months and an environmental study up to 10 months. De Leon said Juarez is ready to go and city council is prepared to move forward with these studies as fast as possible.

“I ‘m very optimistic and I really want to work hard to see what we can do,” said District 4 Councilor Sergio Carrillo. “Because I feel that it’s been stagnant for too long. We need to start working towards it and I think we need to just start building it.”

Although Sunland Park is pretty far out from building a bridge, the project manager brought up an interesting point. A bridge could attract up to 8,000 cars a day to Sunland Park Drive and residents who live around the bridge could find life “unbearable.” De Leon surprised some members of council, saying he’s willing, with permission, to relocate the 200-300 homes if necessary.

The next workshop is scheduled in two weeks.