The port of the future

San Ysidro Land Port of Entry - Phase 2 Design-Build

The largest land border crossing between San Diego and Tijuana, the San Ysidro Port of Entry is also the busiest international border crossing in the western hemisphere. With demand fast outpacing capacity—vehicular traffic is projected to increase 87 percent by 2030—the port is undergoing a major expansion.

We’re helping the US General Services Administration realize their goal of a “Port of the Future” that is sustainable, operationally scalable, and has a reduced carbon footprint. As such, we’re undertaking a complete reconstruction of the pedestrian and bus inspection facilities, including a new 102,000 square foot northbound pedestrian processing facility; new overhead pedestrian bridges; and major renovations to the Historic Customs House. Designed to LEED Gold targets, we’re also working to enhance the ability of main-tenant US Customs and Border Protection to conduct their mission.

Our team designed a temporary office and processing complex to house existing operations and designed the new Virginia Avenue Transit Center to provide multi-modal transportation options for the 25,000 pedestrian travelers per day. This new transit center was designed, permitted, and constructed in just nine months. Virtual Reality (VR) was used extensively to communicate the design progress with all the stakeholders. Given the nature of the project, security requirements were stringent. Use of VR enabled the users to experience their future home in a virtual environment and to work with the designers to make spatial changes that would enable them to carry out their critical mission more effectively; delivering a well-coordinated and compliant design well before construction started.

When all the expansion and configuration projects are complete, capacity to process US bound travellers will have doubled, making for a much smoother and faster traveller experience.