By Ana Gomez Salcido 
PedWest, A new pedestrian border crossing, opened in San Ysidro this Friday, July 15. The grand opening was celebrated with a ribbon cutting and a ceremony that included speakers from local, state, federal, and international agencies.
“One cannot exaggerate the significance of the largest-ever pedestrian expansion to the busiest land border crossing in the Western Hemisphere,” said U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Administrator Denise Turner Roth. “Management of land ports of entry is one of the GSA’s most important missions. These facilities are a crucial strategic national investment, helping secure our borders, and contributing hundreds of millions of dollars to the American economy.”
PedWest is an approximately 22,300 gross square foot pedestrian processing facility on the west side of the San Ysidro Port of Entry with twelve northbound lanes and two reversible lanes. This facility will complement the new pedestrian infrastructure planned for the east side of the port, which will be constructed during the next phase of construction.
“Customs and Border Protection is pleased to open this brand new facility together with our partners,” said Sidney Aki, CBP Port Director of the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa ports of entry. “As part of the larger infrastructure changes at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, we are looking forward to additional improvements to come in the next several years, helping to facilitate legitimate travel between Mexico and the U.S.”
Speakers at the celebration event included Mayor of San Diego Kevin Faulconer, Mayor of Tijuana Jorge Astiazaran, and California State Senator, Ben Hueso, among many more elected officials.
“Our border does not divide Mexico and the United States, our border is not a source of conflict, it’s a source of common challenges that we are facing together,” said Carreno King. “The 3,000 kilometers that we have between our two countries represent an advantage.”
The Virginia Avenue Transit Center, a multimodal transit center that will serve as the pickup and drop off location for pedestrians, also opened on Friday, July 15. It accommodates taxis, buses, and privately owned vehicles dropping off and picking up passengers at PedWest. This new transit center connects the community to mass transit options through the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System trolley’s blue line and buses.
The access to the new pedestrian crossing entrance is from Plaza Viva Tijuana and Plaza de las Artesanias from Tijuana’s downtown, through a provisional bridge built by the Mexican federal authorities while a permanent bridge, which is expected to be finished by December of this year, is being built.
“It’s faster and better, it was a lot of people here and we thought we were going to be waiting for a long time to cross but we didn’t,” said Tijuana resident, Cynthia Urzua. “The bridge seems very unsafe to me, that’s from the Mexican side, but here in the actual building it’s very nice.”