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Zaragoza Crossing Summary

Overview

The Zaragoza Bridge connects outlying areas of El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico. Officially – and on the Mexican side – it is known as Zaragoza; however, the U.S. side often refers to it as the Ysleta Bridge after a nearby community of that name. It spans the Rio Grande River approximately seven miles southeast of the Bridge of the Americas, another major border crossing between downtown El Paso and Juarez. The Zaragoza Bridge handles auto, truck, and pedestrian traffic, although autos and pedestrians have separate tollbooths and Customs inspections facilities from trucks and are physically separated on the bridge. The bridge operates from 8:00 A.M. to midnight Monday through Friday, and 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. on Saturday. The crossing is closed to commercial vehicle traffic on Sunday. In the El Paso – Juarez metropolitan area, other bridges that also handle truck traffic include the Bridge of the Americas (known in Mexico as the Cordova Bridge) and the Santa Teresa Bridge (a crossing primarily for agricultural commerce, about twenty miles from El Paso in New Mexico).

The Zaragoza Bridge is jointly owned by the cities of El Paso and Juarez. The GSA owns the U.S. border crossing facility, which is operated by U.S. Customs. The City of El Paso Street Department owns and operates the tollbooths for trucks heading for Mexico. The Mexican federal agency "CABIN" owns the Mexican Customs facilities, and the tollbooths for U.S.-bound trucks are owned and operated by CAPUFEZE, the Mexican national highway and tollway agency. U.S. and Mexican Customs operate the facilities and control the property where their Customs facilities are located.

Crossing Times
empty cell Baseline Time [1] Average Crossing Time [2] 95th Percentile Time [3] Buffer Time [4] Buffer Index [5]
Outbound 9.0 9.3 34.0 24.7 187.1
Inbound 7.6 37.2 77.4 40.2 108.1

Notes:

  1. Baseline time (in minutes) to travel the study distance (between the starting point in the exporting country and the initial inspection point in the importing country) in free-flow traffic conditions.
  2. Average crossing time (in minutes) to travel the study distance.
  3. Time (in minutes) for 95 percent of trucks to travel the study distance.
  4. Time (in minutes) between the average time and the 95th percentile time for trucks to travel the study distance. This is the "extra time" that must be budgeted to cross the border relative to the average time.
  5. Buffer time necessary expressed as a percentage of average time. This is the extra percentage of average time that must be budgeted to cross the border.

Scatter plot showing the inbound and outbound travel time in minutes for Zaragoza traffic volumes per hour per lane. Inbound traffic volume remains steady, with delays ranging from 10 to 80 minutes. Outbound traffic volume also remains steady, with delays averaging 10 minutes.

Graph showing the average hourly inbound traffic volume and travel time in minutes per booth for Zaragoza from 8AM to 8PM, showing travel time, volume per booth, and number of open booths. No delay travel time is 7.65 minutes. As open booths decrease between 4 and 7PM, volume per booth and travel time increase.

Graph showing the average hourly outbound traffic volume and travel time in minutes per booth for Zaragoza from 8AM to 9PM, showing travel time, volume per booth, and number of open booths. No delay travel time is 5.12 minutes. From 8AM to 7PM, as open booths increase and decrease, volume per booth decreases and decreases, respectively. Travel time remains steady all day.

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