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SAN DIEGO, CA--Local, state and federal government officials today announced the start of a three-year, $18.8 million construction project to substantially improve aging facilities at the Tecate port of entry in eastern San Diego County.

The project will modernize a small three-lane facility built in 1933 and will provide safer, more thorough and efficient processing of the more than 1 million vehicles and 2.7 million people who annually cross the border at Tecate, officials said.

"A new facility to provide better service to the traveling public is essential in Tecate as the region continues to grow," said Adele Fasano, director of field operations for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in San Diego. "When finished the facility will offer a modern, safe environment with room for better use of our new technology such as license plate readers and gamma ray examination systems."

The current port building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Seventy years ago it replaced Customs facilities in the adjacent general store dating to the 1880's, the old adobe ruins of which are still visible to the east of the current building.

Plans call for the construction to be completed in three phases. The first phase will create a new port facility that should be completed by the summer of 2004. Subsequent phases call for renovation and upgrading of the existing structure by the summer of 2005 and development of the southbound side of the port in 2006. Final plans are still pending for the last phase of the project, officials said.

"The project will allow for the safety of our officers and the public by separating the various modes of transportation such as passenger cars, trucks and pedestrians which now must share the existing small facility," said Interim CBP Port Director Paul Henning. "We currently have room to examine only three cars at the same time in our secondary inspection area. The new facility will have three secondary inspection spaces added, giving us a total of six."

Architecturally, the new administration building will match the historic structure and will include adequate office space for employees, a pedestrian inspection area and a processing center for violators. Additionally, the new structure will allow for safer secondary inspection of passenger cars and a new cargo building will facilitate intensive examinations of cargo trucks, Henning said.

The new facilities will total 86,358 square feet, he said.