Otay Mesa East Port of Entry

Project render courtesy of SANDAG

The Otay Mesa East Port of Entry is a currently under-construction border checkpoint along the US-Mexico border in eastern Otay Mesa. The project intends to alleviate congestion at the second- and third-busiest international land border checkpoints in the world in San Ysidro and Otay Mesa respectively.

Site as of 2022, from Associated Construction Publications

The new checkpoint is primarily intended for commercial traffic and cargo, though will be open to passenger traffic as well. To handle this, it will feature 12 lanes total — seven for commercial traffic and five for passenger traffic. Unique to this crossing, however, is that it will be one of the first in the nation to feature a dynamic tolling system in order to manage demand and help reduce congestion along the border, among other features attempting to make it much easier to cross. On the Mexican side of the crossing is the Mesa de Otay II checkpoint for traffic entering Mexico, which was mostly completed by 2024.

The US side features the final stretch of San Diego’s newest tolled freeway, SR-11. First officially defined in 1994, the first section of the freeway began construction in 2013 and the second phase was fully complete by 2022, bringing it to a new diverging diamond interchange at Enrico Fermi Drive as well as adding westbound ramps to the SR-125/SR-905 interchange.

Otay Mesa East and SR-11 project map courtesy of SANDAG

The checkpoint itself was originally intended to break ground in 2022 and be complete by 2024, but became marred with delays as the project faced design changes, staffing concerns, and most significantly, issues with how toll revenue would be shared between both sides of the border. Local US and Mexican officials signed an agreement in 2022 to share toll revenue between both nations, but the Federal Highway Administration then argued that toll revenue collected on federal highways cannot be shared with Mexico. SANDAG amended this by situating toll readers in Mexico and having the transaction take place in SANDAG’s tolling center.

Further agreements would be eventually reached with federal agencies which allowed the project to finally begin construction in 2025, starting with a crushing operation that reused rubble from San Diego International Airport’s former Terminal 1. Officials now expect to have the checkpoint complete by 2028-2029. In the meantime, expect more and more modern logistics and warehouse buildings to be built surrounding SR-11 and the future checkpoint.