NOGALES, az — The Nogales produce community is working through the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas to improve truck movement from the Mexican border to Interstate 19. The drive on State Road 189 between the new Port of Mariposa and the interstate highway is only a few miles. But those miles include many stop lights that clog truck movement and defeat the intention and capability of the $200 million port facility to quickly move traffic from the border. Regardless of home many trucks a day may be cleared at the border, those vehicles hit an immediate bottleneck.

“Mariposa has the potential to move two or three times more trucks a day” if the bottleneck is cleared, said Fresh Produce Association of the Americas board member Scott Vandervoet.

“The way it’s set up now, SR189 is barely passable. We are out to work as an industry to improve it,” said Matt Mandel, FPAA’s chairman. State Road 189 “has the most direct impact” for obstructing business in Nogales. “The port could be so much more if the bottle neck went away.” Mandel said FPAA is working with city, county and state officials to find a solution, which will cost between $80 million and $180 million.

“When you’re dealing with perishables, you want every single kink ironed out of the supply chain,” Mandel noted. The Arizona Department of Transportation has proposed six or eight different plans to clear 189. These “have lots of people scrutinizing ways to fix it with limited resources.” Concerned parties are teaming their energy “as one unified front.”

Officially, “there will be no funding for at least six years but we’re struggling to find a solution,” Mandel said.

Jaime Chamberlain, who is president of J-C Distributing Inc. in Nogales and a past chairman of FPAA, confirmed the close working relationship with ADOT and others to create a solution to SR189 congestion and said the cooperation is encouraging.

Mandel said another important issue for the Nogales industry is long-term discussion of the need to build Interstate 11. Interstate 11 would create a connection between Phoenix and Las Vegas. I-11 would then extend all the way to the Canadian border.

Vandervoet said these two cities are the country’s largest neighboring cities that don’t have an interstate connection.

Vandervoet said this construction might be 20 years away, but is needed now to bypass the intense north-south congestion of California’s highway system, the current alternative for travel between West Mexico and western Canada.