DOUGLAS, Ariz. — Last year, more than 50,000 trucks transporting products passed through the Raul Hector Castro Port of Entry in Douglas, with a value of $2.2 billion in products. The addition of a new commercial port will dramatically increase those numbers, which is why Douglas Mayor, Donald Huish, is happy to see the progress moving forward.Last week, the U.S. General Services Administration announced the continuation of the project, after the environmental studies passed.
“The city needs to hurry up and get their their end of the bargain done, which, again, we're well aware of that," Huish said.Douglas is the last of the Arizona's border communities to add a second port. The goal is to remove commercial trucks from the downtown port, so there is less congestion. Huish says the current port is sometimes shut down or delayed because of congestion and trucks having to make a 90 degree turn on the Mexico side of the border to enter the U.S.
“The value of these ports of entry is critical to our national security and to our national economy,” he said."I think the Arizona-Sonora border is second to none," he said."We have the shortest wait times for trucks pretty much anywhere in the entire U.S.-Mexico border.” “These are probably the largest projects you will see in that the southeast corner of the state of Arizona in a long time,” Ramirez said.“We’ve been approached already by truck stops, wanting to know what the progress is so they can make their plans to put in operations here," he said."Hotels have also come knocking at our door, wanting to know.”“Land that was going for 4 or 500 bucks, you know, four or five years ago, is probably well over $10,000 an acre right now,” Ramirez said.