Study to target Calexico port of entry southbound traffic
CALEXICO — Local officials are hoping a $100,000 federal grant that will finance a traffic management study will identify solutions to help ease the city’s reliance on traffic control officers on southbound Imperial Avenue during peak traffic hours.
Currently, the city of Calexico deploys several part-time traffic control officers on southbound Imperial Avenue during peak hours to help manage traffic congestion caused by motorists headed into Mexicali.
The grant from the Federal Highways Administration (FHA) will allow the state Department of Transportation to hire a consultant to identify possible solutions to the longstanding traffic congestion.
“We felt there was a need to do this study,” said Imperial County Transportation Commission (ICTC) Director Mark Baza.
The study will examine how the pending opening in March of the expanded downtown port of entry and Cesar Chavez Boulevard is expected to impact northbound and southbound traffic.
The study’s second phase will also provide further analysis and recommendations for potential traffic shifts for the 6090 day period beyond the downtown port of entry’s opening day conditions, Caltrans reported.
The city of Calexico had previously received a twoyear $300,000 grant from the ICTC earlier this year to help offset the costs of the traffic control officers’ deployment.
Yet, that financial assistance is hardly viewed as a feasible solution to the traffic issues.
“I don’t think we can sustain that kind of contribution,” Baza said.
The FHA State Planning and Research Program grant also calls for a 20 percent in-kind match from the ICTC, which will provide staff to help with the study, Baza said.
A bid for proposals for the study is expected to go out in early November, with the selected consultant expected to undertake the study in January.
Already, ICTC, Caltrans and the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) are finalizing the scope of work that the traffic management study will entail.
A meeting is planned where stakeholders from the federal General Services Administration, Customs and Border Protection, Caltrans, Calexico and its Police and Fire Departments and SCAG can describe current conditions and what they would like to see accomplished.
At times, the line of cars waiting on southbound Imperial Avenue awaiting entry into Mexicali will reach Mt. View Cemetery, while it’s located about four miles from the port of entry, Baza said.
The study will attempt to determine whether electronic and directional signage, traffic signal synchronization or some other form of technology, can be installed at key points along Imperial Avenue to help reduce the city’s reliance on traffic control officers.
It is also possible that some level of traffic control personnel will remain in place, Baza said.
“The goal will be to try to minimize some of that traffic control staff the city currently has to have in the afternoon and evening,” Baza said.
The southbound Imperial Avenue traffic congestion also presents a dilemma for businesses found on the roadway’s west side that patrons have trouble accessing as a result of the traffic congestion, he said.
Whatever recommendations are ultimately suggested by the study, it will then fall to ICTC, Caltrans and SCAG to identify and secure grant funding to help implement the traffic management plan, Baza said.
Once the port expansion project is finished in March, local officials are hoping that Cesar Chavez Boulevard will serve as the primary access point for southbound and northbound traffic, even though international travelers will still be able to use Imperial Avenue as a northbound access point into the U.S.
The $98 million port expansion project will add 10 new northbound inspection lanes and five new southbound inspection lanes.
The city is also currently expanding Chavez Boulevard at Second Street in order to accommodate additional port of entry traffic.