Donna Texas: Counting on Return of Investment for Bridge Project

Similar to the Anzalduas International Bridge in Donna Texas, many communities around the Southwest are planning or are currently building new and improved border crossings. In El Paso County, Texas, an existing crossing is being demolished and adding it to a new system. A new bridge, the Guadalupe Tornillo International Bridge, is slated to open on 2015. The Mariposa Land Port of Entry in Nogales Arizona is being reconfigured for a staggering amount of $184 million, schedulued to be finished in 2014. In San Diego, leaders are planning to spend $700 million on a a new port and freeway, the Otay Mesa East Project, for 2015.

Why the huge expenditure on border crossings? Its because new crossings bring in new revenue. Now and again, it means tolls. The bridge in Pharr, for instance, which will joins to the manufacturing center of Reynosa, Mexico, is anticipated to produce $9.5 million in tolls this year. That's almost as much as Pharr's property tax revenue plus much more compared with its sales tax income. Only fifty percent that cash are essential to operate the crossing; the rest would flow to city coffers.

But the true revenue hope, though, is the fact that a new crossing definitely will encourage commercial development. American firms use low-cost laborers in Mexican production facilities often called "maquilas" to make fabrics, consumer electronics in addition to automotive components. Corporations with maquilas will often have nearby corporate offices in the U.S. side, and warehousing along with trucking businesses assist the flow of merchandise coming north. Laredo, Texas -- the closest U.S. crossing to Mexico’s industrial center of Monterrey -- hosts in excess of 1,000 logistics firms.

At the moment, all those localities planning or are currently building border crossings are keeping an eye on the Anzalduas International Bridge and watching how much economic development it can bring to Donna Texas.