November 29, 2023 - BigBendSentinel.com -

The timeline for reopening the international rail bridge between Presidio and Ojinaga has been pushed back a few months, with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) estimating that the line will now reopen in summer 2025, rather than December of 2024. The project will allow commercial rail service between Presidio and Ojinaga for the first time since a fire destroyed the bridge in 2008. 

The delay is mostly due to difficulties in securing an X-ray machine for the future Customs and Border Protection inspection station at the bridge. The agency refers to the unit as an “NII” machine, an acronym for “non-invasive inspection” that aims to intercept illegal activity without impeding the flow of trade. 

Adam Hammons, spokesperson for TxDOT, was able to confirm that the contract to purchase the NII machine had finally been secured. “TxDOT is set to work on improvements to the crossing, which are expected to begin in the first half of 2024,” he wrote to The Big Bend Sentinel.

Despite the delays, the news is a positive step forward in a nearly 15-year saga. After the bridge’s destruction in 2008, construction would not begin again until 2018. Major flooding had shifted the shape of the land and riverbank underneath the bridge, requiring major engineering intervention. 

Read more: https://bigbendsentinel.com/2023/11/29/delayed-presidio-international-rail-bridge-project-to-chug-on-into-2025/

Related stories:

 https://bigbendsentinel.com/2021/04/07/presidio-poised-as-next-frontier-for-border-trade/

https://texasrailadvocates.org/post/big-step-forward-for-restarting-international-trains-across-the-rio-grande-at-presidio-tx

Photo credit: Marfa Public Radio