Wait times could go down at the southern border after the San Diego Association of Governments and Caltrans opened a bridge in the Otay Mesa area this week.

This Siempre Viva Bridge connects Interstate 11 West and Highway 905, as well as Enrico Fermi Street and Siempre Viva Road. They are also adding an extra mile along state Route 11. The new roadway will connect to the Otay Mesa East Port of Entry.

SANDAG told Telemundo 20 that the project cost around $17 million and completes the final segment of the highway network at the San Diego border and state Route 11. In total, 1.6 miles will be opened, providing direct access to the Otay Mesa East Port of Entry.

Authorities say the bridge will also boost binational trade, regional mobility and economic growth.

“There are more than 120,000 people who cross daily only through the port of San Ysidro, not counting Otay, CBX and everything that comes,” said Carolina Chavez, chair of the SANDAG Border Committee. “So every time we open a new connection, it is very important because that means that people can spend more time with their family, taking their family, taking their children to daycare, because we waste a lot of time on the street in the car.”

As for the completion of the Otay Mesa East Port of Entry, business leaders and officials pointed out that it’s the Mexican federal government that has yet to move forward in this binational project. The Mexican Secretariat of Communications and Transportation is the entity that must sign off.

“The revenue and traffic study has to be updated to this new world so that the bonds to pay for the project can be issued,” explained Alejandra Mier y Terán, executive director of the Otay Mesa Chamber of Commerce. “All the agreements on the American side are fully signed. Now what we need is for Mexicans to sign the part that had been negotiated with the previous administration.”

This came as a surprise to California officials, who had expected budget conflicts with President Donald Trump.

“We had expected, as we’ve seen many times before, that President Trump would unfortunately pull or revoke funding for projects like this, but in this case, he didn’t,” California Assemblymember David Alvarez said.

This story was first reported in Spanish for Telemundo 20. You can read that story here.