US, Mexico to reopen Laredo border crossing

Customs authorities on either side of the border plan to restore operations to the largest US-Mexico truck crossing this coming Monday, after severe weather damaged the World Trade International Bridge last Sunday.

Shippers moving cargo between the United States and Mexico over the bridge have faced detours and delays since Monday, when US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Mexico’s Servicio de Administracion Tributaria (SAT) closed the structure connecting Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas.

Since then, traffic from the World Trade Bridge has been rerouted to the Laredo–ColombiaSolidarity International Bridge, 18 miles west and roughly a half-hour’s drive away, where operations have remained in good working order, unaffected by Sunday’s storm.

The detour via the Solidarity Bridge has added time, including as much as an hour’s wait time, to shipments crossing the bridge, which — unlike the totally commercial World Trade Bridge — carries pedestrian as well as commercial and noncommercial traffic.

“CBP Field Operations at Colombia-Solidarity Bridge advised that its hours of operations will be extended by one hour, from 8 a.m. to midnight to 7 a.m. to midnight or beyond, commensurate with the volume of traffic, effective on Tuesday, May 23,” CBP and SAT said in a joint statement.