Reynosa, McAllen celebrate new link

Reynosa, McAllen celebrate new link
By Lynn Brezosky
Express-News REYNOSA, Mexico —

The first new Southern border crossing to open in a decade was inaugurated Monday with plenty of pomp and a few polite laments about a process that dragged on nearly 18 years.


The 3.2-mile Anzaldúas International Bridge, crossing rural fields and the Rio Grande, is the second bridge to connect the Reynosa and McAllen areas. The new route promises to open the western end of the Rio Grande Valley to one of Mexico's busiest factory hubs, bypassing downtown Reynosa to cut travel time to the Mexican industrial city of Monterrey by half an hour.

Mexican President Felipe Calderón made a dramatic helicopter arrival on the Mexican side, joining U.S. trade representative Ron Kirk in a coordinated march of U.S. and Mexican officials toward a dais of dignitaries atop the span. At least 1,000 people attended.

“This bridge is more than a link between Mexico and America, between north and south. It is also a potent symbol of our connectiveness,” Kirk said. “You all knew that a new crossing would bring benefits to this entire region, and those benefits begin today.”

Calderón said the bridge was part of a new future for Mexico's northern border and for all of the country.

“It signifies jobs,” he said. “It signifies competitiveness.”

Planning for the bridge started in 1992. President Bill Clinton signed a presidential permit in 1999, an exchange of diplomatic notes came in 2001 and ground was broken in 2007, with the two sides contributing about $100 million for land acquisition and construction costs.

The bridge opened to pedestrians and small vehicle traffic Dec. 15 but does not yet have the permits needed for commercial traffic.

Juan Molinar Horcasitas, a Mexican trade official, said the bridge's “green” construction — it is largely made of recycled materials — made it “not just a bridge between two nations but between the past and the future.”

Along with the addition and expansion of other border crossings, he said, Anzaldúas will help establish Mexico as the “logistical platform” for North America.

It is a long crossing, running past a flood control levee that functions as a border barrier in Hidalgo County and over a no man's land of flood plain along the ribbon of the Rio Grande. South of the river comes another mile or so of rural Mexican dwellings, grazing goats and finally Mexican customs officials.

Officials on both sides say the need for new ports of entry on the border is clear. One million vehicles — and commerce amounting to $1 billion — cross it each day. Mexico is the No. 1 trade partner of 22 states of the union. Some 60 percent of Mexican exports enter the U.S. through the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, which fronts the Texas border from Brownsville to the eastern end of Laredo.

Border cities fight intensely to be the site of new international bridges in hopes of landing stopover business, factories, and a housing market for managers and workers. The last new crossing to open was in Laredo in 2000.

“It takes us 18 years on average between when both governments agree on something and we reach this stage,” Tamaulipas Gov. Eugenio Flores said.

“We need a new procedure, a more adequate standard, a shorter time of formalities.”

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