Anzalduas bridge opens

MISSION — The Anzalduas International Bridge opened Tuesday, becoming the state’s 24th border crossing with Mexico and the fifth in Hidalgo County.

The first cars rolled across the 9,200 foot bridge at 6 a.m., but traffic was light throughout the day, something city officials attributed to a lack of promotion on both sides of the border.

“We knew the crowd that crosses early,” said George Ramon, the bridge’s director. “It was a good showing for the frequent crossers.”

Some Mexican nationals gave a thumb up to police as they crossed into the U.S. and dozens of businessmen made their way to Mexico.

Planning for the bridge, which Rio Grande Valley politicians have dreamed about since the 1970s, began in earnest in 1989. The process was long and fraught with delays as city and bridge officials had to coordinate with all levels of governments in both the U.S. and Mexico.

Ramon’s oldest son was starting grade school at the time and is now in his third year of college.

“I thought he taught me patience,” Ramon said from his new office where the smell of fresh paint still hung. “This bridge taught me patience.”

Opening of the Anzalduas Bridge was delayed twice this year by the U.S. General Services Administration so U.S. Customs and Border Protection could finish security infrastructure in the northbound lanes.

The new bridge is supposed to allow visitors to skirt the western edges of Reynosa and bypass the often lengthy commute through the heart of the city to the nearest border crossing at the Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge.

Mike Perez, McAllen’s city manager, said the bridge would be promoted as a “safe” alternative to the Hidalgo crossing to alleviate travelers’ concerns of driving through Reynosa — a city that has been wracked by violence since Mexican President Felipe Calderon launched an effort to take on the country’s entrenched drug cartels in 2006.

“Safe, secure and efficient,” Ramon said.

For now, the $176 million bridge, including $100.5 million for the U.S. side, is open only to commuter traffic under a permit from the federal government, which bars cargo traffic on the span until 2015 or until the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge averages 15,000 northbound commercial vehicles a week.

City officials have been lobbying the federal government to change that date to 2012 or sooner, saying doing so would foster international trade and spur investment in manufacturing. Officials have also said a second crossing would give maquiladoras a quicker avenue to cross goods and provide an alternative to the Pharr bridge if violence or protests shutters traffic, as happened earlier this year.

“Time is money for people in manufacturing,” Perez said.

Pharr bridge officials argue against opening Anzalduas to commercial traffic, saying that a mere 9,000 vehicles cross its bridge each day and that wait times are reasonable. Jesse Medina, the director of the Pharr bridge, said when it was built in 1994, revenue projections hinged on the bridge being the only commercial truck crossing until 2015.

The potential financial impact on the bridge, which generates more than $8 million in revenue a year, is unclear.

“We’re certainly not going to give up what we have been counting on,” Medina said. “We’re not going to roll over and die for anybody.”

If McAllen is unable to persuade the federal government, city leaders have said the bridge will lose about $1 million a year. McAllen put up $42 million raised through bonds for construction. Once the debt is repaid, revenue from the bridge will be shared, with 44 percent to McAllen, 33 percent to Hidalgo and 22 percent to Mission — 2 percent Mission’s cut goes to the city of Granjeno.

Perez said it will be at least three and half years before the bridge breaks even.

For now the Anzalduas Bridge will be opened from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Officials said they will consider extending hours in six months if traffic warrants the change. Officials will also soon unveil a pass that will allow commuters to prepay their toll for traveling south, similar to highway toll road programs in other major cities.

While the bridge is opened, other state projects to redo Bryan Road will continue. The overpass to carry drivers on Bryan Road above Military Highway will not be completed until Feb. 20, but frontage roads alongside the pass are already opened, said Amy Rodriguez, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Transportation.

Two other overpasses planned for Bryan Road, one at Trinity Road and the other at the Bryan Road-Expressway 83 interchange, will be up for bid from contractors in the spring and completed within 18 months to two years, Rodriguez added.

Even without the new additions to Bryan Road, the new bridge has dramatically cut travel time for the hundreds of daily commuters who cross the bridge for work.

Rogelio Espinosa, a sales manager for Pentair Technical Products, said commute time for American employees at his maquiladora was cut from close to an hour to 15 minutes. If the bridge is opened to commercial traffic, Pentair, with a factory near the entrance to the pass, could cut the time it takes to ship products to a warehouse in the U.S. down from upward of five hours to under two and a half.

“I don’t see that happening anytime soon,” Espinosa said. “Really, for everybody who lives in the States, it’s very convenient.”

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Sean Gaffney covers business, the economy and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4434.