U.S. General Services Administration
Transportation Professionals Tour San Ysidro Land Port of Entry
By Javier Fernandez
A group of 20 transportation professionals from across the country recently had the rare opportunity to tour the San Ysidro Land Port of Entry modernization and expansion project worksite as part of the Women’s Transportation Seminar annual conference in San Diego. The group met with the Pacific Rim’s Regional Chief Architect Maria Ciprazo and the project managers for Phase 2 and Phase 3 on the 40-acre campus. GSA staff, along with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, provided a presentation that gave an overview of the project and its challenges, followed by a guided tour of the ongoing multi-phase, multi-year construction project.
Coordinated in partnership with the San Diego Association of Governments and CBP, the tour was designed to provide the WTS participants with background about the project and highlight GSA’s commitment to sustainability and versatile design in building public-facing facilities that will help expedite and strengthen the safe and legal crossing of vehicles and pedestrians through the port.
“It was a pleasure to present the history and design process of this complex project to the engaged group of transportation professionals,” Ciprazo said, “and to highlight how we transformed the vision into reality with our dynamic construction project in San Ysidro. Coming from a field with its own unique challenges, we wanted to show the group how GSA is constructing new facilities and roadways for the port simultaneously with round-the-clock pedestrian and vehicle operations at this busy port of entry.”
Donning full construction personal protective equipment, the tour participants were given a behind-the-scenes view of some of the project’s components such as: the PedWest pedestrian facility and multimodal transit center at Virginia Avenue; all components of Phase 3, including new primary southbound vehicle inspection booths and lanes, the secondary southbound inspection canopy, administrative buildings and employee parking structure; and Phase 2 projects on the east side of the port including the new processing facility for both northbound and southbound pedestrian currently under construction.