TIJUANA – The Ready Lane program at the Otay Mesa border crossing will be closed until Thursday night to allow the installation of concrete barriers, the municipal government announced.

The lanes that feed into the Ready Lane program were closed starting Tuesday to allow workers to install 100 concrete barriers from the U.S. boundary with Mexico to the access bridge that leads to the port of entry.

The barriers will separate these lanes from the other ones, reducing traffic congestion that happens when motorists switch lanes as the approach the port.

The closure is to end at 8 p.m. on Thursday, according to Tijuana’s urban development department, which is assisting with traffic control during the closure.

Further, U.S. authorities will maintain the Ready Lane open 24 hours Sunday and Monday, March 18 and 19, the days they are most heavily used, as a pilot program.

Regularly, those lanes are open from 8 a.m. until midnight on Sundays and from 4 a.m. until 8 p.m. on Mondays.

The Ready Lane program began last May at Otay Mesa to speed up the crossing of people who have certain types of U.S. documents.

These include the U.S. passport, SENTRI and new legal permanent resident and border crossing cards. These cards contain Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) wireless technology and can be read by a scanner from up to 30 feet away, allowing for faster screening and processing of travelers.

The program has become very popular with travelers, who report that their wait time can be reduced up to 30 per cent.

U.S. authorities opened a pedestrian Ready Lane at that port on Feb. 23.

U.S. authorities expanded the Ready Lane program to the San Ysidro port of entry, the busiest land crossing in the world, on Dec. 19.

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