With a price tag that could ultimately reach the $220 million mark, plans are moving ahead for the construction of a new commercial port in Douglas, Arizona.
The project, as announced by the General Services Administration, will see the building of the port on an 80-acre site just under five miles to the west of the existing Raul Hector Castro Land Port of Entry.
Upon completion, the new port will be devoted to commercial inspection operations.
Work on the existing port, meanwhile, will see a general expansion and modernization, all designed, according to the GSA, to ensure “rapid and coordinated development,” while enhancing “operational efficiencies and capacity.”
The twin projects have been years in the planning and discussion stage, a process significantly sped up when funding was made available through the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in 2021.
In a statement, Dan Brown, commissioner with the GSA’s Pacific Rim Region, said the end result of the work will see the “development of a more efficient, enhanced, two-port solution.”
Brown added that the two ports together will “support economic growth and increase border security.”
Originally opened in 1914, with a border inspection station still in use constructed in 1933, the port of entry connects the southern Arizona city of Douglas with the northern Mexico town of Agua Prieta.
It has always been a busy facility, with vehicular and pedestrian traffic above the 3.6 million mark last year.
In late June, the GSA released a final environmental impact statement on the project.
As now anticipated, work on the two projects is expected to be underway in 2025 and completed three years later.
By Garry Boulard
Image Credit: Courtesy of Cochise County
