Source: United States General Services Administration
August 11, 2022
Busy Pacific Highway Land Port of Entry to receive funding to add lanes and make other upgrades to strengthen supply chains, create jobs, and enhance national security and trade
BLAINE, Wash. — Today, Administrator Robin Carnahan of the U.S. General Services Administration visited the Pacific Highway (PacHwy) Land Port of Entry (LPOE) in Blaine, Washington, which will be modernized by the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). With lane expansion from six to 10 lanes and other upgrades, this improved LPOE will help strengthen supply chains, create jobs, and enhance security and trade throughout the region.
“With billions of dollars in goods and services crossing our borders each day, America’s busy land ports are critical to our economy, to supply chains, and to creating good jobs,” said GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan. “We’re making dozens of investments on our borders at places like Blaine, Lynden, and Sumas to make our land ports more efficient, effective, sustainable, and secure.”
The BIL included a total of $3.4 billion for GSA to undertake 26 major construction and modernization projects at LPOEs. The investments are estimated to support, on average, nearly 6,000 annual jobs over the next eight years; add $3.23 billion in total labor income across the United States; contribute an additional $4.5 billion to the National Gross Domestic Product; and generate hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue for state, local, and federal governments.
PacHwy is a full-service, continuously operating land port that processes inbound and outbound privately owned vehicles, commercial truck traffic, buses, and pedestrians. It is the busiest LPOE on the Canadian border in the Western U.S. The project will greatly expand the port by adding four additional vehicle entry lanes, for a total of 10 primary inspection lanes. A new canopy and expanded bays will provide enhanced secondary inspection capabilities. A project agreement was signed with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in April, and GSA will begin soliciting bids for construction management of the project in September, with completion estimated for late 2025.
Expanding the port will help reduce wait times for both commercial and non-commercial traffic. Faster screening times reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions due to decreased vehicle idling time. The project will also be required to meet GSA’s new standards for low-carbon concrete and environmentally preferable asphalt, implemented earlier this year.
In addition to the PacHwy upgrade, the BIL includes funding to replace two other land ports of entry in Washington. The Kenneth Ward LPOE in Lynden will add two POV primary inspection lanes and three commercial inspection lanes. The LPOE in Sumas will add one POV and two commercial inspection lanes.
Overall, the legislation will invest approximately $300 million* in LPOE projects in Washington. Beyond making these border crossings more functional, sustainable, and secure, these investments will also foster economic growth and job creation in surrounding communities.
These projects also provide opportunities to incorporate sustainability features which will sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions, mitigate the impact of buildings on the environment, and simultaneously increase the mission readiness of the federal government by increasing resilience to climate change. The historic Inflation Reduction Act, which passed the United States Senate over the weekend, will build on this progress by making the single largest climate investment in U.S. history.
For more information on how GSA is modernizing land ports of entry, please go here.
*Note: Estimated project costs are planning estimates and subject to change due to time and market conditions.
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About GSA: GSA provides centralized procurement and shared services for the federal government, managing a nationwide real estate portfolio of nearly 370 million rentable square feet, overseeing approximately $75 billion in annual contracts, and delivering technology services that serve millions of people across dozens of federal agencies. GSA’s mission is to deliver the best customer experience and value in real estate, acquisition, and technology services to the government and the American people. For more information, visit GSA.gov and follow us at @USGSA.