Southbound truck traffic to begin at Anzalduas Bridge

McALLEN — Southbound truck traffic will finally start Monday at the Anzalduas Bridge.

In order to make this happen, the city of McAllen paid more than $1 million for infrastructure on the Mexican side of the bridge. Superintendent of Bridges Rigo Villarreal was in Mexico City last week as the United States and Mexican governments needed to finish the final stages of the process.

The city sent a test truck over the bridge last week to make sure all the equipment was working. The truck lane on the Mexican side had fresh pavement laid at the end of July, an intricate drainage system wide enough so if a truck were to break down, others could pass.

Villarreal said Friday while he doesn’t yet have an estimate for revenues or truck numbers; he and his staff should have those figures within the first couple weeks. For a gauge, the Pharr International Bridge makes roughly $12 million annually from southbound truck traffic. It recently made $1.1 million in July revenues from just over 45,000 trucks crossed. Pharr is the only bridge in the area with trucks flowing both northbound and southbound.

From October to July, the 2015-16 fiscal year with two months remaining, Pharr has collected $10.9 million. The Pharr bridge is still the leader by a long shot in land port of entries in the area, as it has thousands of trucks flowing both ways each month. And the city reaps the rewards.

At a Pharr bridge board meeting Wednesday while discussing the budget for fiscal Year 2016-17, Bridge Director Luis Bazan prepared for the potential Anzalduas truck traffic. He said his department is expecting to bring in about $12.2 million in revenue, about a half-million fewer dollars than this year.

Pharr also has three big projects in the works: a new cold inspection facility, a new agricultural inspection training and development facility and expansion of the secondary inspection dock space at the point of entry.