4-26-2024 6:36am

Santa Teresa Port and Sunland Park Connector Moving Forward to Ease Border Congestion

Chris Edwards Editor

Presently NM-136 is the only road connecting the Santa Teresa industrial area to the surrounding states of Texas and Chihuahua, Mexico to the New Mexico port of entry; Santa Teresa, New Mexico.

New Mexico 136 is a freight corridor and has a large mixture of commercial trucks and privately operated vehicles. About 700 semitrailers cross the Santa Teresa port of entry, heading north into the United States, every day, with about 350 trucks going southbound into Mexico. The port represents $2.5 Billion in economic output in the last year per a report from NMSU.

Per reporting in the Las Cruces Bulletin, the General Services Administration and the Customs and Border Protection department presented findings of a feasibility study that envisioned expanding the port of entry to fifteen commercial lanes (from three currently) and eleven passenger lanes leading from Mexico, plus five lanes southbound and the inspection bays for commercial trucks.

If the project is prioritized and funded, the project could transform Santa Teresa into one of the largest ports of entry on the U.S.-Mexico border, more than tripling its current size.

Funding for the study was secured in 2022 by U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, who pressed both agencies to finalize the study and make the proposal a priority project.

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich has made the Santa Teresa port and upgrades a significant priority during his tenure and a cornerstone to economic growth for Southern New Mexico which has struggled economically in comparison to the northern areas of New Mexico around Santa Fe and Albuquerque.

Plans for the Border Highway Connector between the Santa Teresa Port of Entry and city of Sunland Park are moving forward, as the New Mexico transportation department looks to reduce traffic and shorten the drive to the industrial area just west of El Paso.

The New Mexico Border Authority, NMDOT and Federal Highway Administration are working in cooperation on the project, which is estimated to cost $80 million.

“This connector is going to change everything around the border,” said Julio Jimenez, executive director of the New Mexico Border Authority in an interview with El Paso Inc. “Instead of taking 25 to 30 minutes going down I-10, it’ll take you about eight minutes to go the two and a half or three miles to get to Sunland Park.”

The route of the highway being considered will be decided by the end of April after a feasibility study is completed. One option is to extend NM-9 where it now ends at Pete Domenici Boulevard to Racetrack Drive.

Aaron Chavarria, district engineer at NMDOT, said the final design for the highway should be completed by September 2025. Construction is expected to begin in spring 2026. The project is funded by a $45 million federal Infrastructure for Rebuilding America grant and $40 million in state funds from NMDOT.

Recently, the Santa Teresa Port of Entry has ranked as high as fifth in terms of largest commercial ports of entry in terms of trade, with more than $31 billion in goods passing through this port annually. The Santa Teresa region now accounts for approximately 63 percent of New Mexico’s exports to the world. A recent NMSU study revealed that Santa Teresa contributes approximately $2 billion to the state’s economy and supports 7,000 jobs. Currently, approximately 1.5 million square feet of industrial space is being built in Santa Teresa and another 1.5 million square feet in San Jeronimo.

New Mexico’s economy has been dominated by the petroleum industry which feeds a huge portion of the state budget and government spending. Tourism has historically been the other dominant engine for New Mexico’s economy. Development around the Santa Teresa Port of Entry along with infrastructure to support that development is rapidly becoming one of the best ways for New Mexico to diversify its economy and is a needed boost to the southern New Mexico jobs market.