San Ysidro U.S. Land Port of Entry

San Ysidro, CA

San Ysidro U.S. Land Port of Entry

Phased reconfiguration, expansion, and modernization of the world’s busiest land port of entry replaced outdated inspection buildings and site facilities and expanded the number of inspection lanes, reducing border crossing wait times from over 4 hours to less than 20 minutes, all while maintaining around-the-clock operations. The port is the first-ever 24/7/365 facility to achieve LEED Platinum, NetZero Energy, and NetZero Water. MKA provided civil site design for the 39-acre site and led the net-zero water effort, combining a 300,000-gallon rainwater reclamation system, a 12-million-gallon on-site wastewater treatment and reuse system, and nature-based stormwater management, to produce enough water to meet all non-potable demands, saving the purchase of 20 million gallons of water each year. The various project phases include construction of new primary and secondary inspection areas, three-story “Head House” building, three-story pedestrian processing building, one-story narcotics/seizure building, five-story employee parking garage, and sub-grade staff access tunnel. MKA’s structural solutions include special steel moment frames for the Head House and pedestrian buildings, which provide both lateral resistance and progressive collapse resistance. Interconnected by two, two-story steel-and-glass pedestrian bridges, the buildings feature an ETFE-clad skylight roof. The primary inspection canopy is a tension cable system that is supported by only three concrete columns. MKA‘s strategic phasing and staging plans enabled construction while maintaining continuous border operations, setting new standards for efficiency, security, aesthetics, and sustainability.