Evaluation of Travel Time Methods to Support Mobility Performance Monitoring:
World Trade Bridge (Page 1 of 5)

Final Site Report

April 2002

to

Office of Freight Mgt. and Operations
Federal Highway Administration
U.S. Department of Transportation
Washington, DC 20590

by

Battelle Memorial Institute

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Border Crossing Freight Delay Data Collection and Analysis
FY 2001 Data Collection – Laredo Crossing

Site Description

The World Trade Crossing (International Bridge 4) in Laredo, Texas is the most important truck crossing on the United States/Mexican border. Texas border crossings account for most of the truck traffic and the Laredo crossing alone represents over 60% of the truck traffic crossing the border between Texas and Mexico. Table 1 shows truck traffic for 2000 crossing the border from Mexico to the United States. The World Trade bridge crosses the Rio Grande River that separates Laredo, Texas from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico and provides a link between I-35 in the United States with such Mexican cities as Monterrey and Mexico City. Most (up to 90%) of the truck traffic at the World Trade Bridge in Laredo consists of "drayage." That is, short distance shipments between warehouses in Laredo and Nuevo Laredo. Typically, long distance trucks in either Mexico or the United States unload their cargos at a warehouse where it is transferred to a short haul truck for the trip across the border. Other shipments move directly from a factory near the border in Mexico to a warehouse across the border in Texas or from a warehouse in Texas to a factory in Mexico. These short haul trucks usually make up to three trips a day across the border. Figure 1 shows a map of the general region in Texas and Mexico that provides access to the border. Figure 2 shows the location of the World Trade Bridge within the city of Laredo.

Data collection activities took place at the World Trade Bridge border crossing on Tuesday October 30th, Wednesday October 31st and Thursday November 1st, 2001 for approximately ten hours each day. The times of data collection were selected to correspond to the daylight hours of operations at the bridge. The World Trade Bridge operates from 8:00 AM to 12:00 Midnight.

Inbound trucks (northbound) traveling towards the United States, leave Mexico pass through the export booths and proceed across the bridge into Texas and towards U.S. Customs. At Customs, the vehicles pass through primary inspection and after a secondary inspection, either proceed to special inspections (about 15% to 20% of the trucks) or leave Customs through the final inspection booths.

Outbound trucks (southbound) traveling towards Mexico, use Loop 20, which provides access to the World Trade Bridge. It can be accessed directly from I-35 or from the south from Mines Road. Loop 20 approaching the bridge is a new divided highway built specifically as an access road for the World Trade Bridge. Close to the border, the number of lanes expands to eight to enable the vehicles to proceed through the toll booths. The trucks cross the bridge and enter Mexico through import booths. Ordinarily, the Mexicans have up to ten booths operating. Most trucks pass through the import booths without much delay (no more than 90 seconds) and a small percentage are diverted to the secondary inspection facilities. At secondary inspection, trucks can undergo further papers checks and/or physical inspection at truck bays or in the parking area.

Table 1. Truck Crossings from Mexico into the United States for 2000 Incoming Truck Crossings, US-Mexican Border for 2000

Port Name	January	February	March	April	May	June	July	August	September	October	November	December	Total
Arizona, Total	35,979	35,995	38,278	33,418	32,354	25,502	19,328	21,160	20,325	24,608	28,051	29,267	344,265
Douglas, AZ	2,868	2,913	2,563	2,171	2,696	2,983	2,534	2,946	2,712	3,051	3,158	2,999	33,594
Lukeville, AZ	269	295	363	383	401	331	342	257	269	349	298	283	3,840
Naco, AZ	683	912	1,183	725	713	U	704	814	718	995	980	710	9,137
Nogales, AZ	27,659	27,525	29,066	26,509	25,386	19,266	13,075	14,359	13,595	16,448	20,151	21,655	254,694
Sasabe, AZ	269	235	184	185	174	186	178	208	271	211	430	121	2,652
San Luis, AZ	4,231	4,115	4,919	3,445	2,984	2,736	2,495	2,576	2,760	3,554	3,034	3,499	40,348
California, Total	76,230	82,463	90,509	80,585	88,938	98,319	87,890	92,603	85,122	89,017	83,549	76,321	1,031,546
Andrade, CA	105	159	181	126	152	136	111	92	82	117	125	131	1,517
Calexico, CA*	U	U	U	U	U	U	U	U	U	U	U	U	U
Calexico East, CA	22,405	23,372	25,684	21,026	22,962	29,155	22,182	24,003	21,297	23,137	22,285	21,303	278,811
Otay Mesa/San Ysidro, CA	49,378	53,898	58,836	54,239	59,955	63,547	60,484	62,780	58,640	60,034	56,122	50,427	688,340
Tecate, CA	4,342	5,034	5,808	5,194	5,869	5,481	5,113	5,728	5,103	5,729	5,017	4,460	62,878
New Mexico, Total	2,282	2,711	3,009	3,373	3,072	3,036	2,880	3,672	3,767	3,438	2,906	2,345	36,491
Columbus, NM	193	212	243	233	315	206	316	916	956	601	197	157	4,545
Santa Teresa, NM	2,089	2,499	2,766	3,140	2,757	2,830	2,564	2,756	2,811	2,837	2,709	2,188	31,946
Texas, Total	242,935	256,127	282,616	241,863	277,312	272,753	247,327	293,468	257,554	271,225	249,431	220,666	3,113,277
Brownsville, TX	24,915	25,223	26,860	24,993	27,771	27,756	25,248	27,689	23,784	23,902	22,183	18,914	299,238
Del Rio, TX	4,979	5,117	5,689	4,768	5,420	5,436	4,691	5,525	4,984	5,444	5,120	4,055	61,228
Eagle Pass, TX	8,402	9,164	9,481	8,549	9,876	8,941	8,361	9,610	8,616	9,281	9,289	7,322	106,892
El Paso, TX	56,688	59,433	64,553	55,632	64,942	63,225	55,185	77,419	59,470	63,671	51,107	49,081	720,406
Fabens, TX	24	26	37	24	8	10	8	12	23	20	9	13	214
Hidalgo, TX	28,647	30,544	36,420	30,726	32,856	31,603	30,371	33,627	29,833	31,938	31,226	26,359	374,150
Laredo, TX	114,829	121,675	133,952	112,419	131,385	131,162	119,027	134,678	126,296	132,267	125,273	110,110	1,493,073
Presidio, TX	889	830	991	707	764	617	465	466	538	693	960	814	8,734
Progreso, TX	719	963	1,147	815	1,043	1,062	1,101	1,317	881	751	1,168	1,034	12,001
Rio Grande City, TX	1,722	2,036	2,139	2,205	1,931	1,860	1,775	1,958	2,128	2,189	2,048	2,074	24,065
Roma, TX	1,121	1,116	1,347	1,025	1,316	1,081	1,095	1,167	1,001	1,069	1,048	890	13,276
U.S. - Mexico Border Total													4,525,579

Key: U = Data are unavailable; Data for the port of Calexico are typically reported as a combined total with Calexico East.
Source: U.S. DOT, BTS based on data from US Customs Service, Mission Support Services, Office of Field Operations, Operations Management Database.

Figure 1. The Laredo Border Crossing Region

Figure 2. Laredo and the Location of the World Trade Bridge

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