08.18.08
County Commissioners approve Secure Border Project

EL PASO - County Commissioners approved the El Paso County's Secure Border Trade Demonstration Project (SBTDP).

The 3.6 million pilot project will equip three El Paso / Juarez maquiladoras with 30 heavy duty tractors/trailers with state of the art intelligent transportation system devices.

This kind of technology will serve to secure merchandise, and transmit key data into a central storage area.

The data will then be analyzed by software agents to detect anomalies, which may compromise the security of the protected cargo.

The program is funded through the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)'s Coordinated Border Infrastructure (CBI) Program.

Bob Geyer, Director of the county's Rural Transit Department, explained to the members of the court that the objective of the SBTDP is to increase the security and efficiency related to the movement of goods and people at the Mexican and Canadian borders with the United States.

"The cargo will be tagged with radio frequency identification labels and will be monitored during their travel. If for any reason, the truck leaves their prescribed course an alarm will sound alerting the program administrator about possible irregularities with the protected cargo," Geyer said.

The Texas Transportation Institute (TTI)'s Center for International Intelligent Transportation Research will be responsible for developing and coordinating a technology monitoring system and a quality control plan for the project.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection field office in El Paso has agreed to participate as an advisory stakeholder group for the technology monitoring system.

The process for request of proposal will be initiated during the fall season.

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