New pedestrian entrance to Tijuana

Walking into Mexico from San Ysidro will soon be a more pleasant experience, Baja California authorities said Thursday. Within two months, the state government is planning to complete a new entrance that is expected to serve some 25,000 pedestrians who cross daily into Mexico.

“This will allow us to have an entry to our country that’s more practical, secure and far more dignified,” Gov. Francisco Vega de Lamadrid said during a tour of the facility.

The new inspection area will be housed in a three-level, $4.2 million structure being built with state and federal funds. The building will replace the provisional pedestrian entrance that has been operating since September 2012, when the U.S. government opened its new pedestrian crossing into Mexico on the eastern side of the San Ysidro port.

Mexico’s new structure is envisioned as a piece of a complex reconfiguration being planned in Tijuana that includes commercial areas, a park and connections to a future rapid-transit system.

The future building will also house several government agencies, including Baja California’s Tourism Secretariat and Mexico’s federal Tax Administration Service, which oversees Mexican customs.

Longer-term changes await pedestrians who often endure hours in line as they wait to enter the United States at San Ysidro. The U.S. General Services Administration expects to open a western pedestrian facility at Virginia Avenue in January 2016. On the eastern side of the San Ysidro port of entry, the GSA is planning a new pedestrian building, but the project is still awaiting Congressional funding.