GSA, Otay Mesa Land Point of Entry Expansion and Upgrade, San Diego, CA

The General Services Administration’s (GSA) Otay Mesa Land Port of Entry, connecting San Diego to Tijuana, Mexico is the third-busiest crossing on the Mexico-United States border, and the busiest when it comes to commercial truck traffic. This project, part of GSA’s Design Excellence Program, builds out an undeveloped 9.9-acre lot to the east of the existing port, adds new buildings along the port perimeter and renovates some existing facilities.

The project includes re-orienting the port’s commercial vehicle traffic, additional commercial vehicle processing lanes, booths and canopies, new Hazardous Materials facilities, and a new 34,000-SF Commercial Annex Building that will house public-facing operations of Customs and Border Protection as well as office spaces for both Customs and Border Protection the Food and Drug Administration. A 13,000-SF US Department of Agriculture Plant Inspection building and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration bus inspection building are also part of the port expansion.

The project included laboratories for the Food and Drug Administration activities at the port along with labs for the US Department of Agriculture Plant inspection activities. These featured controlled temperature facilities, hazardous substance handling and testing, wet bench testing and microscopy.

Syska served as prime consultant and furnished electrical engineering services and lighting design services through the design/build delivery of the project for all new buildings, existing renovations and the expansion of the port site utilities. New emergency generation facilities compliment the 12kV distribution to furnish 100-percent back-up to critical buildings for the CBP while also providing peak sharing and shaving opportunities for the port to save on electric utility costs during peak hours.