JWC Meeting Minutes
Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, Mexico
November 14-16, 2005
For this meeting the delegations were as follows:
U.S. Delegation
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) - Jill Hochman, Roger Petzold, Sylvia Grijalva, Lisa Dye, Michael Avery, Michael Onder, Jermaine Hannon
US Department of State - Bob Hyams, Robert (Buck) Waldrop (WHA-MEX), Jim McAnulty, Bill Carroll (U.S. Embassy, Mexico), David Stewart (U.S. Consul, Tijuana), Cynthia Sharp (U.S. Consul, Nogales)
General Services Administration (GSA) - Ramon Riesgo
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) - US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) - Chad Gilchrist, DHS/CBP Attaché - Renee Harris
US VISIT - David Williams, Lisa Folb, Cori Asaka
Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) - Agustin de la Rosa, Esther Hitzfelder
New Mexico State Highway and Transportation Dept (NMDOT) - Rebecca Montoya, Joseph de la Rosa
New Mexico Border Authority - Jaime Campos, Jim Creek
California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) - Pedro Orso-Delgado, Sergio Pallares
Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) - Dale Buskirk, Rudy Perez
Mexican Delegation
Secretaria de Comunicaciones y Transportes (SCT-UAC) - Oscar de Buen, José San Martin, Juan José Erazo, Oscar Ringenbach, Miguel Ángel Gutiérrez, Nestor Valdez, Francisco Calvario
Secretaria de Comunicaciones y Transportes (SCT-Planeación) Rafael Martínez, Hiram Martínez
Secretaria de Comunicaciones y Transportes (Centro SCT - Sonora) Ismael Norzagaray, Israel Armenta
Instituto Mexicano de Transporte (IMT) - Jorge Acha
Caminos y Puentes Federales (CAPUFE) - Octavio Vial
Secretaria de Desarrollo Social - Salvador Gómez Rocha
Instituto de Administración y Avalúos de Bienes Nacionales (indAAbin) -Laura Selene Millan, Luz del Carmen Herrera
Aduana - Maricela Galicia, Carla Tena, Gabriela Albores
Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores - Bosco Martí, Arturo Barrio
Gobierno del Estado de Baja California (SIDUE) - Sergio Montes, Carlos López
Gobierno del Estado de Sonora (SIUE) - Humberto Valdez, Carlos Espinoza, Fernando Lam
Municipio de Puerto Peñasco - Raúl Méndez Rojas
Gobierno del Estado de Chihuahua - Joaquín Barrios
CODEFRONT - Marco Antonio Garza
Gobierno del Estado de Tamaulipas - Aquiles Garza
Universidad Autónoma de Baja California (UABC) - Salatiel Reyes
Consultants
New Mexico State University - Christopher Brown
SUMA Sinergia - Juan Carlos Espinosa
GTSI - Venu Sarakki
Nov 14, 2005 - U.S. and Mexico Only Sessions
November 15, 2005 - Joint Working Committee Meeting-Joint Session1
Welcome - Raúl Méndez Rojas- Municipio de Puerto Peñasco
Meeting Kick-Off - Oscar de Buen- SCT and Jill Hochman-FHWA
Approval of minutes from Las Cruces May 2005 meeting - All The JWC approved the minutes
SAFETEA-LU Border Program - Roger Petzold - FWHA
Presentation provided a summary of new FHWA legislation, focusing on Sec. 1303 Coordinated Border Infrastructure Program which will provide $833M to the U.S. States over the 5-year life of the bill for border infrastructure and planning purposes in the 100 mile border region. Funds are distributed by formula based on number of trucks, buses, passenger vehicles, ports of entry and freight weight incoming to the border states and can be spent on eligible projects in Mexico and Canada. Funds can also be transferred to GSA.
Discussion: Q. Does the border region cover 100 miles on both sides of the international boundary? A. No, only 100 miles in the U.S. Projects have to directly and predominantly facilitate cross-border motor vehicle and cargo movements at an international port of entry. US DOT will approve funds to be spent in Mexico/Canada. Some states do not have equipping legislation to be able to spend the fund in Mexico (or in some cases to use the fund at all). Where necessary the states are developing such legislation. Texas is having local border planning meetings to discuss funds. The Mexican states requested that the U.S. states write a summary/description of how the funds will be spent in each U.S. state, or the process used to determine how funds will be spent.
COMMITMENT: Each U.S. Border State will share with SCT their process for distributing funds received from the Coordinated Border Infrastructure program (Section 1303) of SAFTETEA-LU within their state and the process by which this funding can be spent in Mexico.
Key Milestones of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America as it relates to the JWC Work Plan - Bosco Marti - SRE and Juan Jose Erazo - SCT
Bosco gave an overview of the SPP (ASPAN as it is known in Mexico) a trilateral agreement between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, including its antecedents and main objectives. Juan Jose then made a presentation linking many of the JWC work-plan items (ITS, BINS, Border Security Projects, SimFronteras, GIS, Innovative Financing, identification of binational corridors, bottleneck identification, etc.) with the SPP. Many of the JWC work plan items identify short- and medium-term goals that are either included directly in the SPP or can fold directly into SPP objectives. Highlighted recent goals are the Innovative Finance conference of August 2005, new SENTRI lanes in Tijuana and Calexico, 21 POEs modeled with SimFronteras and design of the Mexican National ITS Architecture.
Discussion: Jill added the upcoming Safety Conscious Planning Seminar (April), the low-risk port of entry concept, the Border Information Flow Architecture (BIFA) project and additional work on BINS as additional work items consistent with the SPP.
Counter-Terrorism Projects Overview
Summary - Jim McAnulty - U.S. Embassy, Mexico City
The border security projects are designed to deter terrorists and to ensure safe and secure trade. Jim thanked his staff working with him on this project. The Embassy received initial grant funding of $25M in FY2002 and have received funding amounts of $15M in FY2004 and an additional $15M in FY2005. This funding goes toward project such as Non-intrusive Inspection equipment, SENTRI lanes, and the SimFronteras border modeling among other projects. Jim also thanked SRE and SCT with whom he works to make sure these projects are implemented.
SENTRI Lanes - Miguel Ángel Gutiérrez - SCT and Venu Sarakki - GTSI
Miguel Angel gave an update on the six SENTRI lanes projects underway border wide: Tijuana-San Ysidro, Mexicali-Calexico, Nogales, Cd. Juarez, Laredo and Matamoros. Both Tijuana and Mexicali are 100% designed, are under construction and are expected to be operable in December 2005. Nuevo Laredo and Nogales are 100% designed, and ready to begin construction with potential opening dates of April 2006 and May 2006 respectively. Lanes in Matamoros and Juarez have proved more difficult, because of indecision about location and toll costs and competing uses for bridge lanes (FAST/SENTRI/truck/car). Venu gave a presentation describing GTSI in general and the process that GTSI went through to design and develop the SENTRI project in Tijuana, including determination of demand, analysis of existing conditions and development and implementation of bid package and construction package. The challenge for SENTRI construction is not a technical challenge, but an institutional one.
SimFronteras - Oscar Ringenbach - SCT and Juan Carlos Espinoza - SumaSinergia
SCT is the lead agency in developing SimFronteras, simulation modeling and animation to analyze commercial, private vehicle, and pedestrian traffic entering Mexico at land ports of entry (POEs). Data collection is now complete at the 21 POEs to be modeled: Mesa de Otay, Colombia-Laredo, Cd. Juárez (Córdoba- Las Americas), Nuevo Laredo III, Reynosa-Hidalgo and Reynosa-Pharr, Nogales/Mariposa, Suchiate II/Cd. Hidalgo (Mexico's southern border), Mexicali II/Calexico West, Matamoros/Los Tomates, Mexicali I/Calexico, Zaragoza/Ysleta, Nuevo Laredo I/Laredo I Nuevo, Laredo II/Laredo II, Nuevo Laredo III/Laredo IV, Ciudad Acuña/Del Rió, Jerónimo/Santa Teresa, and Camargo/Rió Grande City. Documentation and user manuals in both English and Spanish are complete.
The model will be implemented at two levels, at the central government level and on a local/regional basis. SCT is distributing the tool and developing sharing agreements with the Technology Transfer (T2) Centers and with the local Comité Intersecretarial de Coordinación Operativa en Puntos de Internación (CICOPI)s (at the Municipio level). SCT will be providing training for the end users of the model and will also serve as technical support. The model can be used for existing POEs and to test/evaluate new POEs as well as for regional planning and in corridor planning and analysis. Specific upcoming projects include a study of the Reynosa/Rio Grande Valley area and in El Paso/Cd. Juarez.
Discussion: An agreement was reached at the May 05 JWC meeting to form a group to analyze the possibility of linking black box versions of the SimFronteras and Border Wizard. Initial explorations into this project determined that the cost to do so was prohibitive (several hundred thousand dollars). Q: Baja California is interested in determining the schedule for the training on SimFronteras. A: Their local T2 center has it and the state will work with them to use it. As keys are expensive it was been more efficacious to have one centralized location where the software can be used, and the software is very complicated so infrequent use is challenging, another reason again for there to be centralized workstations. Comment: Forecast data from CAPUFE and U.S. Customs doesn't always match, users should be careful to validate forecast data and we should continue to try and coordinate on both sides.
Estimating Impacts of Border Wait Time Delays - Pedro Orso-Delgado - Caltrans
Pedro gave the group an update on this study, whose objective was to assess the magnitude of the regional economic impact (San Diego-Tijuana) due to delays at the international ports of entry. Findings from this study are being used to help policymakers understand the contribution of cross border travelers to the local economies and provide information for developing policies, planning infrastructure, and helping prioritize investments to improve traffic flow at the border. Over 3600 surveys were collected to get a statistically accurate sample. In the San Diego region over 60 million annual cross-border trips are made, 90% of which are local trips. At today's level of wait times (45 minutes) over 8 million annual trips are lost or foregone. This results in an economic loss of $1.28 Billion. Combining that figure with working hours and wages lost results in an annual output loss to the region of $2 to 2.5 Billion to San Diego. Impacts to Tijuana are lower numerically (2 million trips lost and total output loss of $100-$230 million) but represent the same percentage of output lost. The economic model can be used to show how increases in wait times further impact both economies. Further steps will be the estimation of economic impacts of border waits on freight movements and a case study of the Imperial Valley/Calexico region.
The JWC made an agreement to: Continue to monitor studies analyzing the cost of border delays, the public's willingness to pay a user fee for more efficient transportation infrastructure, and studies identifying various funding mechanisms.
Private Concession Schemes for International Crossings - Jose San Martin - SCT
Mexico has recognized the need to involve the private sector as an active partner in helping to fund infrastructure. POE projects are developed based on agreement with Mexican federal agencies considering project feasibility and then via diplomatic note with U.S. federal agencies, who have gone through a similar process. Once a POE project is agreed to, SCT initiates the concession process which includes further feasibility market studies, ROW acquisition, permits, etc. Once the concession process is complete, and a concessionaire is selected, financing is obtained and the project is developed and constructed.
There are two tiers of priority projects: San Luis Rió Colorado II, Reynosa-Anzaldúas, Rió Bravo-Donna and then Guadalupe-Tornillo, Nuevo Laredo IV, Díaz Ordáz-Los Ebanos. San Luis Río Colorado has a proposed schedule to begin construction in April 2007 and open in July 2008. (GSA has a schedule of construction in 2009 with operation in 2012). The Reynosa-Anzalduas project has a schedule of construction Jan 2007/operation July 2008, the Rio Bravo-Donna project construction Feb 2007/operation Feb 2008.
Border Technology Exchange Program (BTEP) - Michael Avery - FHWA and Juan Jose Erazo - SCT
This FHWA program works to implement technology to meet the highest priorities of the FHWA: safe, efficient, secure and seamless movement of people and goods between the U.S. and Mexico. The BTEP has both border-wide activities and Mexican Technology Transfer (T2) Center (6 nationwide) components. Synchronicity with the JWC work plan occurs in various places, use of JWC work products, expansion of workshops and sharing of technology. Program members have recently revised the Work Plan for the program and will need to continue to work to institutionalize the program and ensure funding for program success. SCT in coordination with the Instituto Mexicano de Transporte (IMT) is developing an agreement with each T2 center. The agreements will allow the T2 centers to make use of the "border tool-kit" that SCT has been developing (e.g. SimFronteras, GIS, SENTRI, mechanisms for POE coordination, etc.) An agreement has been signed with Tamaulipas, is currently being reviewed with Nuevo Leon and the other states will soon be following. Border States also were allowed time to make brief reports of recent activities.
Strategic Resource Assessments (SRA) - Chad Gilchrist - CBP
Chad gave an overview of the SRA process, whose goal is to help CBP meet their dual mission of protecting the border and facilitating trade. The SRA is being conducted to provide informative support to current and future projects, target resources to the areas of greatest need and to communicate with and listen to stakeholders. Both northern and southern border Ports of entry are being studied. Facilities are assessed on four characteristics: mission and operation, security and life safety, space and site deficiency, and personnel and workload growth. The outcome of the SRA process will be to outline short and long-term facility project needs prioritized across the national portfolio. Along the southern border assessments have been conducted at Tucson, San Diego and Laredo, with an upcoming assessment in El Paso (January/February 06).
Discussion: Q: In the initial SRA study (Tucson) Mexican agencies were invited to the stakeholders' groups. Subsequent studies have suffered with tight schedules and concurrent Mexican national holidays. Will there be an opportunity for Mexican input into this process? A: Yes. Coordination with the Mexican Government is essential. CBP is interested in determining the best methodology for information exchange to occur, in a one or two day border-wide workshop? in regional meetings? And then will schedule the date/dates. C: The consulates will need to be invited.
Planning Subcommittee of the Intersecretarial Group for Bridges and Border Crossings - Arturo Barrio - SRE and Rafael Martinez - SCT
Arturo discussed the ongoing work that is being done to develop a process for a prioritized evaluation of bridges and border crossings. One step in this direction has been to hold regional vs. borderwide meetings to discuss issues in a more detailed way. Such regional meetings have been held in Arizona (San Luis) and California (Tecate). The group will continue to work on a methodology that will better guide the process. Rafael discussed how Border Master Planning can be an effective tool to select and program border crossings. This master planning could be done via assigning weights to certain criteria, including need, environmental impact, coordination with local plans, connectivity, socioeconomic factors etc. and then assigning projects to various time frames (short-, medium-, and long-term).
Discussion: This SCT effort seems very similar to what Caltrans/SIDUE have been coming up with for criteria, scheduling, etc. for their Regional Master Plan. As SCT will be a part of the stakeholders' group for the CT/SIDUE effort they will work to integrate some of the same ideas.
Nogales/Mariposa FAST Lane - Oscar Ringenbach - SCT and Dale Buskirk - ADOT
This project is nearly ready to go. On the U.S. side the funding has been acquired, the design is done and the bid has been awarded. Once a diplomatic note is sent from Mexico to the United States, construction can begin. Mexico has had some delay due to a sub-concession on their portion of the fiscal route. Financing is finished and the executive project should be completed by February 06.
Discussion: Issuance of a diplomatic note requires approval from many agencies, not just SRE's. The concessionaire problem has led INDAABIN to withhold approval on the project. The Government of Mexico is looking for ways to split the project in two parts, one part within Mexico and the other part within the U.S. Then the U.S. construction can move forward without necessarily waiting to resolve the difficulties with the concessionaire. This should be done by late November, and a diplomatic note sent.
JWC Webpage - Sylvia Grijalva - FHWA
The webpage address is www.borderplanning.fhwa.dot.gov. Project reports will be included on the website in the future, including these minutes and presentations from the meeting. If there are links that would be useful to the group, please let Sylvia know, so they can be added. The website will be also available in Spanish (with the participation and help of SCT via a link to SCT's webpage). portal.sct.gob.mx/SctPortal/appmanager/Portal/Sct?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=P32005. This Spanish JWC web site is in the final stages of being operational.
Work Plan 2003-2005
Innovative Financing
Overview and Next Steps- Oscar de Buen - SCT and Jill Hochman - FHWA
After the success of the Border Finance Conference held in San Antonio in August, we need to decide how we move forward applying the tools learned to actual projects. SCT has posted all of the presentations from the finance conference at the following site: http://uac.sct.gob.mx/fileadmin/espanol/seminariocct/resultados/idxresultados.htm. A link has been provided through the JWC website. It has been suggested that we will develop case studies for a few projects on how to put an innovative finance package together, how to foster partnerships with public and private sector stakeholders, and how to engage the finance community.
Border Finance Inventory- Juan Jose Erazo - SCT and Sylvia Grijalva - FWHA
After the Las Cruces JWC meeting an agreement was made that all states should submit a revised list of projects using the following criteria: that the environmental work has commenced, construction is anticipated by 2010, is located within 30 miles of the U.S./Mexico border and has a clear tie to the border (POE). Upon this submission, a final report of the inventory of non-fully funded border-related projects that could be potential candidates for innovative financing will be complete. The purpose of the inventory is to identify projects with funding gaps where innovative financing could be used. After the report is finalized, the finance team will develop and propose concrete strategies to utilize the revised inventory report, including recommendations on those projects that would be good for the group to pursue. Deadline for submission has passed and some states have yet to submit their information, but,
The JWC accepted the revised Border Finance Project Inventory which includes projects with the following criteria: that the environmental work has commenced, construction is anticipated by 2010, is located within 30 miles of the U.S./Mexico border and has a clear tie to the border (POE). Missing state data must be submitted by the end of December 2005 if they are to be included in the inventory.
The finance subcommittee led by Fred Werner will use the revised inventory to develop a shorter list of projects that could be used as pilots/target projects for regional workshops. The regional workshops will use finance industry experts to help enhance the ability to obtain financing for those projects selected. The finance subcommittee will work to document methods or processes necessary to utilize TIFIA, RTIF and BANOBRAS funds for border projects. The finance subcommittee will develop strategies to increase the private sector funding of projects.
Financing Alternatives to Increase the Investment Grade of Border Transportation Infrastructure Projects - Francisco Calvario - SCT
With SCT's new concession scheme to fund highways as well as international ports of entry, which involves public/private partnership, long term loans and requires high project investment grades, confidence in forecasts for determining what projects may be worthy are extremely critical. It is important that the studies are transparent, that the studies are accurate for the region, and for the ramp-up characteristics of the region, that correct toll prices and economic growth factors are used, that all studies required by financial entities are of the highest quality and most up-to-date, and that projects are rated correctly.
Border Finance Pilot Project Example - Pedro Orso-Delgado - Caltrans
California has been cobbling money together for various projects and with various agencies for a while now. They are interested in taking advantage of the momentum of the border finance conference to carry forward on both the I-905 and the SR11/Otay Mesa East projects taking advantage of the expertise that FHWA and the JWC have developed to enhance the finance "tool-kit". There was a discussion on current funding for both projects and expected steps for the future, and a submission of these projects to be included as the JWC moves forward in finance project pilot selection.
Discussion: The State of Baja California wants to second that these are very important bi-national projects (especially the SR11/Otay Mesa East POE). As a group we will need to look for more public/private partnerships, to develop more in-depth studies on projects for banks, score/rank the projects in the portfolio, and to perform risk analyses on projects. As we move forward with the local workshops/pilot projects we will look for sources of funding and work to incorporate the tools we have developed through the JWC such as BorderWizard. Projects should be closely coordinated from one side of the border to the other.
Binational Geographic Information System (BGIS) - Christopher Brown - New Mexico State University (NMSU) and Rafael Martinez - SCT
This development of the BGIS as a tool for spatial/non-spatial data which can be used for POE development, port planning, congestion tracking, environment security and safety issues, and future land use and transportation decisions is nearly complete. The GIS consists of two components, spatial layers (roads, railroad, airports, POE locations, etc.) and a table of modal data identifiers on those layers. NMSU is working toward a comprehensive binational data source for multiple levels of BGIS. Recent data requests have been incorporated into the on-line site, as well as more Quickbird imagery at more ports of entry. The GIS information is housed online at http://mapper.nmsu.edu/JWC_BGIS/BGIS the "one-stop shop" for border GIS information, GIS data can be downloaded from this site hosted by NMSU. The userid for this file is geography/bgis and the password is BGIS. This server allows JWC members to access data sets and other data products.
Interest in GIS training was solicited from U.S. counties. Several were interested and 3 counties were signed up and ready to go, but then didn't have the travel budget to attend. NMDOT hosted a training course in August 2005 for ten people from New Mexico, Texas, Arizona and Chihuahua. There is continuing interest in training.
SCT has been working an in-house GIS system. The system has been distributed nationwide to the 31 SCT Centers (one for each Mexican state). There is information in a 50km band on the key corridors leading to POEs, data includes roadway characteristics, population information. There is also information in a 50km radius around the POEs that provides more detailed information and is linked to detailed aerial photos.
Port of Entry Coordination, Pilot - Esther Hitzfelder - TxDOT and Juan Jose Erazo - SCT
The Coordination Pilot builds on previous study identifying shortcomings in coordination at U.S.-Mexico ports of entry and works to implement recommended alternatives. The TxDOT/TTI team identified two key issues for implementation under the Phase 3 pilot program to implement: Elimination of Multiple Stops through sharing of data (trucks inspected by different agencies at different locations) and Extended Hours of Operation. TxDOT is ready to go ahead with developing a FAST-type lane through the Border State Inspection Facilities (BSIFs) which will facilitate legitimate trade and eliminate the "multiple stops". The systems will use RFID technology in a system compatible to CBP's system but not connected. The system will be tested in El Paso, implemented before the BSIF is complete to establish base line times. Wait times will then be measured before and after construction of the BSIF.
Mexico has also finished the preliminary phases of this project and submitted its alternatives to the Comisión Intersecretarial para la Coordinación Operativa en los Puntos de Internación al Territorio Nacional (CICOPI), the intergovernmental agency who makes decisions on changes at POEs. CICOPI meets periodically and is more or less in agreement with the recommendations, which were made for six different opportunity areas, but will still need to make a decision about Implementation. SCT would like to conduct a binational pilot study using the SimFronteras model to study some of the recommended improvements.
TxDOT will work with SCT to develop a work plan for follow on work and try to implement the SimFronteras model into the case study if possible. The initial binational project at El Paso/Cd. Juarez will be followed by projects at other to be proposed locations.
2005-2007 Work Plan
Regional Border Master Plan Proposal -Pedro Orso-Delgado - Caltrans
Caltrans has developed a proposal to create a border-wide master plan with a comprehensive and prioritized assessment of the bi-state POE and transportation needs. This proposal is based on the observation that there are a lot of different proposals floating about for long-range activities for existing and new POEs, generated from many different sources. State/local/federal governments have overlapping interests at the POEs but have been discussing the need for a master plan that provides order to the planning process. Such a plan would need to be collaborative and could be used in all of the planning and programming processes. The goal is to develop a prioritized list of projects (transportation and POE projects) for the short-, medium- and long-term via a process and criteria determined by stakeholder collaboration. The Border Master Plan will incorporate the BINS I/BINS II efforts and move beyond them to an updatable working plan for border projects.
The plan will be carried out via the following work tasks: stakeholder participation via a Policy Advisory Committee (PAC), determination of existing capacity and demand, estimation of growth and future demand, analysis and prioritization of needs, public outreach, development of a final document, and implementation of the document. Caltrans will test the plan with a pilot study using the San Diego/Baja California region.
Discussion: The methodology will need to be transparent, regional, and applicable across the entire border. Inputs and outputs need to be similar and universal criteria need to be determined for this process to be successful.
Border Information Flow Architecture (BIFA) - Mike Onder - FHWA
Mike presented how a Border Architecture can address border needs and provided a timeline of the BIFA project. The architecture development process will identify technologies and agencies that use technologies at or near the border, identify priorities of these various agencies, promote interoperability of technologies, reduce technology investment cost , and enhance information exchange, coordination and communication. This effort will provide a framework for ensuring institutional agreement and technical integration for the implementation of ITS projects or other technology solutions at major land border crossings.
Crystal Jones is the FHWA project director for this project, and she along with the BIFA subcommittee agreed to the following Action Plan, which identifies a four step process: Getting Started- identifying need, stakeholders and champions and defining the region, Data Gathering-identification of systems, determination of needs and services, development of operational concept and definition of functional requirements, Defining Interfaces-identification of interconnects and interfaces, definition of information flow, and Pilot Consideration- development of information flow architecture, evaluation of proposed projects, application of architecture to selected project, and re-evaluation of information flow architecture. Funding has been made available for this project and work will begin shortly. Work will be coordinated via the BIFA subcommittee and regular meetings will be reestablished. The JWC has a standing subcommittee that will work on this effort.
Mexico is currently working on its national architecture. Topics under consideration include: interoperability between different modes of transportation, measurement of weight of vehicles, determination of virtual weight, an interoperable system that facilitates data exchange with others e.g. police who need the same information. SCT is working closely with Mexican Aduana on this effort.
The JWC committed to conduct a conference call with BIFA subcommittee and SCT's Office of Autotrasporte (Oscar Cruz' office) developing the ITS architecture for Mexico to discuss progress in that effort and how that effort ties into the BIFA effort.
Innovative Financing of Low Cost-High Impact Projects - Sylvia Grijalva- FHWA and Juan Jose Erazo- SCT
This work plan item was initially conceived as an outflow of the Nogales III/Mariposa FAST lane project. The idea was to identify other projects where flexible funding could be utilized, and where results could be obtained quickly. States were asked to submit two projects that could be considered for further low-cost/high impact study. Several states did submit projects but they were of such different scale from one state to another (from intersection improvements to a $29million dollar project) that it proved difficult to compare one to another. Other states did not submit any projects at all. Once we have a complete list of projects then each can be evaluated for further study.
The JWC will develop a binational multi-agency stakeholders' group to follow up on projects submitted by the states to determine their viability. States have until the end of December 2005 to submit any additional projects.
Border Infrastructure Needs Assessment (BINS II) - Pedro Orso-Delgado - Caltrans, Chris Brown -NMSU and Juan Jose Erazo -SCT
The BINS II project will build upon recommendations from the BINS I study: improve corridor and project identification, collect data to fill gaps in BINS I, develop an update mechanism for BINS I, redefine transportation corridors considering continuity, enhance corridor evaluation process and re-evaluate accordingly, and enhance compatibility of BINS I data with the Binational Geographic Information System (BGIS). The estimated cost for BINS II is $150,000 with a completion date of 12 months after award of contract.
Once funding is available the BINS team and the BGIS team will work together to compile new data, enhance coordination, add data for security, environment, and safety work, and to ensure that coordination is carried out between the two Work Plan items.
The JWC will formally request the Border States' transportation plans in the border region in order for that information to be folded into the BGIS system.
SCT is exploring ways to use the existing BINS data and with the integration of new intermodal/multimodal data (highway/rail/sea and air) to be able to determine relative competitiveness of various modes: those with low cost/high reliability/high effectiveness and then measure economic benefits of intermodal choice.
FHWA will share information about the Freight/Intermodal model developed by the Office of Freight Management with SCT.
Bottlenecks Study - Sylvia Grijalva - FHWA
Caltrans developed a methodology to identify bottlenecks in the vicinity of the Ports of Entry. TxDOT is currently planning its own bottleneck study in the El Paso area using a slightly different methodology. This topic will continue to be explored and the results of the TxDOT study will be compared with the Caltrans study. Additional funding may be available in the future for further study of bottlenecks (regardless of methodology) at different locations.
The JWC will investigate to see if a binational component can be added to a bottleneck study currently planned by TxDOT.
Regional Operations Model - Nestor Valdez - SCT
This proposal as presented seeks to use JWC developed tools, and other traditionally used tools, to analyze at three distinct levels (macro- nationally significant corridors regional-examination of urban/suburban areas and micro-local connecting facilities and conflict points) factors that affect highway capacity and efficiency of traffic flow. This effort will help make investment decision for projects at all three levels.
Binational Safety Conscious Planning (SCP) Seminar - Sylvia Grijalva- JWC
This conference is intended to bring together the safety and planning communities to incorporate safety into the planning process. Preliminary discussions on the seminar have led to a tentative schedule of April 20 & 21, 2006 in Hermosillo, Sonora. ADOT will be contributing BTEP funds from FHWA's Office of International Programs. Potential topics could include road safety, pedestrian safety, vehicle safety, border control checkpoint design and others. To date information has been collected on U.S. and Mexican fatality characteristics. The SCP subcommittee has come up with a list of region specific issues that affect safety at Ports of Entry, and a draft agenda of topics to be discussed at the seminar including: safety initiatives in both countries, how the transportation/ infrastructure planning process impacts safety, traditional and non-traditional partners, how to identify local/corridor/area-wide safety problems, and human and cultural factors.
BTEP Strategic Plan - Michael Avery - FHWA
Update of Strategic Plan was approved as JWC work item in May 2005 and a committee of representatives of the FHWA, SCT, Border States and T2 centers was established to review the 2003 Strategic Plan. The committee met and agreed on a new Vision, Mission and Goals for 2005-2010. Two separate Strategic Plans were produced, one for the Border Technology Exchange Program - that program administered by the U.S. states and one for the Technology Transfer Centers - program administered by a committee of which FHWA and others are advisors. By March 2006, additional work will be completed to clarify the roles and responsibilities of partners in both programs.
The updated BTEP strategic plan will be circulated among the JWC. The JWC will submit any comments relating to the BTEP strategic plan to Sylvia Grijalva or Juan Jose Erazo by the end of December 2005. If no comments are received than approval is assumed.
Border Wizard Pilot - Lisa Dye - FHWA
The purpose of the Border Wizard pilot was to evaluate the compatibility and linkages between Border Wizard and local or regional travel demand forecasting models. Four pilots are being sponsored with two southern border Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) involved: El Paso MPO and San Diego Association of Government (SANDAG). The El Paso MPO will be comparing Border Wizard with the VISSUM/VISUM software package as well as with the 2005 TransCAD trans-border passenger Travel Demand Model. Training for MPO staff on the Border Wizard software was carried out in July 2005 and networks for 3 POEs (Paso del Norte, Stanton St and Anapra/Sunland Park) will be completed by March 2006.
SANDAG intends to have a third party provide the model runs that they will use to link Border Wizard with SANDAG's regional transportation planning model which is currently being updated with new land-use, demographic and road network information in Mexico (with an expected completion date of December 2005). Once this update is complete, SANDAG will go through a bid process to select a contractor for the Border Wizard model runs. Various wait times and queues as outputs from Border Wizard and inputs into the regional model will be tested for the Otay Mesa POE. Completion date for the draft report is anticipated by April 2006.
Outreach Strategies
While the JWC has developed a lot of useful tools for planning and programming there has not been a lot of external dissemination. The proposal of this work plan item is to heighten awareness of the JWC as a group, to raise its image, and to implement an effective dissemination of JWC tools and products to implementing agencies and organizations that would utilize the tools developed by the JWC. One functioning product of this is the JWC webpage.
A work group was established to address other ideas in this topic area, but not much feedback has been received. Two key questions will need to be addressed: Who is or would be interested in JWC products? And what is the message we are trying to convey? Are we looking for new partners? Do we want to encourage people to use our products/tools/research? There are several different sources available to develop strategies, including help from the FHWA resource centers, and the subcommittee will continue to work on this topic. Any ideas that the JWC members have for the subcommittee would be appreciated.
Border Governors' Status Report - Fernando Lam - SIUE
The Border Governors' Border Crossing Work Table has a lot of projects that have synergy with JWC projects. It was suggested that a time be set aside on the agenda at the JWC meetings to allow for a briefing on the Work Table to be given. The JWC agreed to give the Border Governors' Border Crossing Work Table a recurring position on the JWC meeting agendas so that the JWC can be informed of that group's activities. The next Border Governors' meeting will be held on August 23-25, 2006 in Austin, Texas.
Summary of Commitments and Agreements
Sylvia Grijalva stated the commitments and agreements reached at the current meeting. The JWC agreed with the Commitments and Agreements as read.
Other Decisions and Discussion
Jill Hochman expressed regrets from Cindy Burbank for not being able to attend the meeting and made the group aware that Dan Reagan, FHWA Division Administrator for Texas will be retiring January 2, 2006. The next JWC meeting is to be held in Tucson, Arizona in May 2006.
1. Because presentations from the meeting are now available in real-time from the JWC Webpage http://www.borderplanning.fhwa.dot.gov/filemanager (password: jwcmeeting) the minutes do not reiterate the presentations, only provide a brief summary of the presentation topic and any discussion made on that topic at the meeting.(back)
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