Construction to divert commercial traffic from Ysleta port

Construction on the Mexican side of the Ysleta Port of Entry is expected to push more commercial traffic over the next eight months to the Bridge of the Americas.

Between now and mid-November, northbound trucks will no longer be allowed to cross at the Ysleta Port of Entry after 4 p.m., leaving some concerned how that will impact both traffic at other bridges.

“There’s 2,500 trucks trying to get across the ports of entry every single day right here in El Paso/Juarez,” said John Rippee, vice president of border solutions for the Tecma Group. “So it’s a big deal. Beginning of last week, we started analyzing it and looking at it. Any change is always going to be difficult and progress is difficult as well.”

Monday through Friday, the Ysleta Port of Entry will be open to northbound commercial traffic 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Ysleta export office southbound will remain open 6 a.m. to midnight. The Bridge of the Americas, normally closed to commercial traffic at 6 p.m., will now be open to northbound commercial traffic 6 a.m. to midnight.

On Saturday’s, the Ysleta Port of Entry will be closed to northbound commercial traffic. It’s open to southbound commercial traffic 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the Bridge of the Americas will be open to northbound commercial traffic 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“About two-thirds of our shipments on average are from 1 p.m. to 11 p.m.,” Rippee said. “Clearly there is going to be an impact.”

Norman Bebon, CBP’s assistant port director for trade, told ABC-7: “It’s too early to tell what the impact of all this will be … We’ll know more in a couple of days, when the traffic patterns are more established.”

While commercial traffic is expected to be the most affected, it remains to be seen how non-commercial traffic will be affected by sending more trucks to the Bridge of the Americas over the next eight months.

“The lanes are segregated,” Rippee said. “If they back up beyond the capacity lanes, than you will have an impact.”

Rippee said typically that doesn’t happen, so he does not expect a big impact on non-commercial bridge traffic. He adds the Tecma Group is urging clients to ship earlier in the day, in order to help the company deal with the changes.