31-Jan-1999 Sunday
Improving San Diego's transportation and trade infrastructure is the key to expanding our trade, growing the economy and creating good-paying jobs. This is especially true here on the shores of the Pacific Rim at the U.S.-Mexico border where we are strategically located to take advantage of new federal trade policies and new global trade realities.
Re-establishing a direct rail link to the east and resolving the state Route 905 (SR 905) unfunded mandate created by the passage of the North America Free Trade Agreement will help us achieve these objectives by revitalizing the Port of San Diego.
The fact is that NAFTA promised to increase trade, but did not provide the resources for the needed infrastructure to implement it. The inescapable reality for San Diego was that whether our local roads and highways were ready or not -- and they were not -- the volume of trans-border trade skyrocketed following passage of NAFTA.
SR 905 is currently a four-lane country road and was never intended to carry the traffic it does today, nor was it ever intended as a tool to implement national trade policy. In response to the resulting increase in dangerous and congested traffic conditions on this road, Sen. Barbara Boxer and I drafted legislation establishing a "border infrastructure fund."
This program would require the federal government to accept ownership and responsibility for such large, trade related transportation projects by establishing a fund dedicated solely for this purpose. Our proposal was included in TEA-21, the nation's multibillion-dollar new transportation bill, and now border and trade projects have a separate fund pledged for this purpose alone.
An application for funding under this border infrastructure program has already been submitted on behalf of SR 905 to the Department of Transportation. The new program was conceived precisely for projects like ours, and SR 905 deserves to be funded. I am confident that these efforts will coalesce, and we will witness real progress on the construction of this important economic highway.
San Diego's future economic growth and our status as a trade center depend on harnessing the untapped potential of our port. The key to that working commercial port is the ability to ship material and products directly to the rest of the nation. Re-opening the San Diego & Arizona Eastern Railroad will avoid the currently obligatory detour through the crowded rail yards of Los Angeles and provide us with that direct access to markets and manufacturing centers throughout the country.
The following programs were included in TEA-21 to provide the necessary capital to re-open the line:
With these elements in place, we now have the resources to begin undertaking the physical repairs to the line that will enable re-establishment of basic service in short order. The only hurdle that remains blocking the tracks is the politics of securing the rights on the portion of the railroad that travels through Mexico.
I have discussed this issue with President Clinton, Vice President Gore, DOT Secretary Rodney Slater, the Mexican ambassador and Mexican Cabinet ministers and stressed the economic benefit that resolution of the trackage rights will bring to both countries.
With an active rail line and adequate highways and a nearby airfield, the Port of San Diego will possess what other successful ports offer -- quick and easy access to distribute arriving and departing goods.
Additionally, our geographic location allows us an opportunity to take advantage of the growing markets throughout the Pacific Rim. By offering an alternative to the congested Los Angeles region, local and national manufacturers will come to see San Diego as a vital new avenue to distant markets.
When completed, state Route 905 and the reopened SD&AE will increase trade opportunities for our port and transform it from the "little engine that could" into the "little engine that will." It will lead San Diego into the 21st century with a more diverse and stronger economy.