El Paso County is conducting a study to figure out how to draw more traffic through an existing, but underused international border crossing.
The Marcelino Serna Port of Entry in Tornillo, also known as the Tornillo-Guadalupe International Bridge, completed in 2016 for $133 million, was anticipated to generate about $20 million in revenue annually for the county through tolls, but that has not materialized. The county does not impose tolls since crossings are minimal. Factors such as connecting roadways and other infrastructure taking longer to complete on the Mexican side than anticipated led, in part, to the lackluster usage of the crossing. The bridge replaced the Fabens-Caseta Port of Entry completed in 1938.
The county is developing an $1.4 million study to figure out how to increase commercial traffic. The El Paso County Commissioners Court first approved the study in September 2024, and recently approved amending the study’s scope to expand an international marketing outreach program to visit with strategic industries in Mexico to figure out what is needed to draw that traffic. About $1.1 million comes from American Rescue Act Plan funds and about $300,000 from the county’s general fund…