Monday, 22 February 1999 Truckers, go west Photos by Jeffry Scott, The Arizona Daily Star If the new Nogales, Sonora, port of entry isn't finished tomorrow, officials promise it will be operational Truck traffic often slows to a crawl at the Mariposa Port of Entry Nogales, Son., routes big rigs around city By Tim Steller The Arizona Daily Star NOGALES, Sonora - A toll road scheduled to open tomorrow will likely liberate travelers from this city's chronically clogged streets. From tomorrow forward, the more than 1,000 tractor trailers traveling daily through Nogales to the United States this season must use the new road, called the Corredor Fiscal. This 7 1/2-mile highway has four lanes and two shoulders and feels smoother than the most recently paved portions of Interstate 19. As truckers and long-distance travelers use the new outer-edge highway, or perifÈrico, city officials hope local residents and visitors will benefit from reduced traffic and clearer air along the old perifÈrico. Despite its approximately $2.80 toll, the new choice of roads seemed clear to a 51-year-old named Terry who travels to San Carlos from Tucson every couple of months. ``Say no more,'' he said, preparing to pull his pickup into the dust and smog of the old highway. ``Twenty-eight pesos? Not a problem.'' For commercial vehicles, the toll will be 90 pesos, or about $9 at the current exchange rate. The new highway heads from the Mariposa Port of Entry in western Nogales to a point south of the city, where it joins Mexico's Highway 15, the main highway to Hermosillo and beyond. That means avoiding both the central highway that runs through downtown Nogales and the old PerifÈrico LuÌs Donaldo Colosio. That highway originally had the same purpose as the new highway: to keep commercial traffic out of the city center. Nogales expanded west to the old perifÈrico and beyond. With unrestricted access, the old highway became a chaotic corridor. Produce trucks run past massive factories, and pedestrians mingle around taco stands or string along the road on treks toward the border. Red dust mingles with diesel clouds and charcoal smoke. Steady growth in the Nogales maquiladora industry and in Mexican produce exports has led to a boom in the number of tractor trailers traveling north through Nogales. In the last three fiscal years, the number of trucks crossing through the Mariposa port grew by 14 percent to 256,494. ``It's a headache for the city officials, especially in this season, when the road fills with produce for export,'' said Mexican customs administrator Emeterio Ochoa ZuÒiga. The peak season runs from January to March. Traffic police corral the trucks at a vast gravel lot about two miles south of the line, then dispatch them northward in fleets of a dozen or more. The Mexican government chose a private contractor to build the new highway, but after construction began in 1995, it stalled twice. Since building resumed in September, it has continued 24 hours per day, said Eduardo Gomez Barrero, project manager for the contractor, Primex. Workers interviewed last week doubted that the $35 million project would be complete by tomorrow, but Gomez promised it will at least be operational. Today, the Mariposa Port of Entry is closed to everyone except produce-truck drivers, but the downtown port of entry is open. Starting tomorrow, those in passenger vehicles who drive south into Mexico through the Mariposa Port of Entry will encounter a choice: take the toll road and skip Nogales, or take the old perifÈrico and proceed through a new, smaller Mexican customs station immediately. Those who choose the toll road will travel about six miles before reaching the toll booths. A half-mile down the road, they will come to the expansive, new Mexican customs station. ``This customs stations is a model in Mexico, among the 47 existing stations,'' Ochoa said. ``It's dignified, decorous, functional, and, most important, adequate to meet the requirements of the North American Free Trade Agreement.'' Seated on 20 acres, the station includes facilities for truckers to file their export paperwork, separate from the facilities for declaring imported merchandise. The road is fenced in to restrict access and will be monitored by three long-range cameras with monitors at the customs station. ``The new facilities, if you compare them to what we had up to a few days ago, are a thing of beauty, something that a customs administrator dreams of,'' Ochoa said. They will also mean a big benefit for the produce industry. Nogales is the port of entry for most of the winter produce consumed in the United States, according to a 1997 University of Arizona study. On the old road, there was ``a complete loss of predictability as to when the produce would really come across,'' said Lee Frankel, president of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas. Now the arrival of produce will be more predictable, even if it costs a toll, Frankel said. Truckers will be unlikely to see a repeat of 1998 traffic at its worst, when some of them had to wait overnight to cross the border. ``If we have the reliability that we expect from the new roads, then it's worth it,'' Frankel said. Truck drivers like Victor Manuel Fierro also look forward to the smooth new road. It will ease Fierro's twice-weekly trip from Los Mochis, Sinaloa, and eliminate the wait at the parking lot along the old perifÈrico. ``The problem is the 90 pesos. I hope the bosses are willing to give it to us,'' Fierro said. The new route is a less direct one for maquilas, whose trucks will have to drive south to the beginning of the perifÈrico to make it across the border. Eventually, a new entrance will allow maquila trucks access to the road about two miles south of the border. For Nogales, the toll highway will offer hope for slowing the city's unplanned, sprawling growth, Mayor Wenceslao Cota said. While the old perifÈrico can become a normal urban artery, busy but not overflowing, the new highway can become a focal point for industrial growth on the edge of town.