Why the San Diego-Tijuana Border Crossing Is Closing for a While 

It's a U.S.-Mexico border crossing that sees more than 40,000 cars a day.

Now, the San Diego and Tijuana crossing will be closed for work on a $741 million expansion project.

The project will hit hard border businesses, workers, and tourists. 

Travelers have been enduring hours-long waits on the Mexican side of the border to enter the U.S. with the constant addition of security measures since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

But now, even border officials admit travelers can expect longer wait times.

The expansion is believed to be the largest renovation of a crossing along the nearly 2,000-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border. It has been in the works for years to ease congestion and boost cross-border commerce.

U.S. officials are telling travelers to avoid driving to Baja California from 3 a.m. Saturday until noon Monday, hoping to ease what is feared will be a massive traffic jam on the U.S. side.

Meanwhile, Mexico-bound cars will be detoured to the much smaller Otay Mesa crossing to the east.

Leaders in Baja California's tourism industry told the Associated Press, they are concerned about the disruption that could continue well past the weekend as some lanes stay closed until November.

They were already working to get word out that their tourist spots are safe after the U.S. State Department issued a travel advisory last month that included the region because of violent crime.

Several hotels are cutting rates to convince people to still venture south of the border. Rooms at the Rosarito Beach Hotel, once frequented by Hollywood stars like Marilyn Monroe, are going for as low as $60 a night, a 25 percent drop from last year.

The weekend border closure is to allow for the removal of a large metal canopy spanning over all the southbound lanes into Mexico.

Border officials say the crossing will reopen Monday with three southbound lanes while California's Interstate 5 is realigned to feed into the renovated crossing. U.S. officials expect traffic flows to go back to normal by Thanksgiving, when four of the five lanes at the Western Hemisphere's largest land crossing will be open.

It is expected to be completed in summer of 2019.