Spirits rose in Douglas earlier this month when the U.S House of Representatives approved the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act on a 228 to 206 vote. Now all that is needed is President Joe Biden’s signature to the bill.
One of the most watched provisions of the bill is the $3.85 billion it provides to address issues at some of the United States’ 167 land ports of entry. Of that, $400 million is earmarked to upgrade the Douglas Port of Entry in Cochise County to a dual-location port. The funding not only covers renovations to the existing facility built in 1933 but also construction of a new commercial port of entry.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have held countless meetings with local stakeholders in the last decade to secure support -and then funds- for improving the Douglas Port of Entry. Not only does the existing facility frequently experience traffic backups, but there are frequent flooding issues caused by the Douglas side of the border sitting several feet lower than Agua Prieta.
The delays in moving a project forward led to an expenditure of nearly $500,000 in 2018 to add a third pedestrian lane. Then in 2019, discussions about a long-term answer took a giant step forward when all parties expressed support for two separate ports.
The two-port solution, as it’s called, would upgrade the existing location in downtown to continue handling pedestrian, car, and bus crossings while a facility dedicated to commercial traffic would be constructed in collaboration with Mexico about four miles to the west.
The only problem is that the project had no funding. Which will change once Biden officially signs the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the funds are formally allocated to the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA).
Public records show the new facility will take up to five years to become operational. Making the process easier is the fact the City of Douglas has pledged to donate up to 80 acres of land to the federal government for the project. In addition, GSA has already initiated or completed several steps necessary to move forward with construction, including a feasibility study.
The city also completed a review of revitalization plans in anticipation of removing hundreds of commercial tractor-trailer vehicles from its downtown streets, while the Arizona Department of Transportation initiated its own feasibility study for a connector road that needs to be constructed from the border to State Highway 80.
Meanwhile, Cochise County officials completed work with city officials on a water and sewer master plan of the area to accommodate the new commercial port as well as other growth.
Data provided by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics shows 3,433 reported crossings at the Douglas Port of Entry in 1996, which held steady until 2000 when more than 13.700 crossing were recorded.
Crossings increased to 45,549 in 2003 before falling off each year until CBP reported only 13,572 crossings in 2009. That number fluctuated over the next several years, topping off at 30,029 in 2016. In 2019, there was a reported 16,174 crossings.
