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Once-Stalled Border Bridge To Be Dedicated Near El Paso

A rural international bridge that planners hope will be a boon for Texas-Mexico border commerce is to be inaugurated after years of construction delays.

Mexico President Enrique Pena Nieto will join U.S. officials on Thursday to dedicate the Tornillo-Guadalupe Port of Entry and International Bridge. The bridge over the Rio Grande replaces narrow 77-year-old Fabens-Caseta international bridge about 650 yards downstream from the new span and 30 miles downstream from El Paso.

Planners hoped the $96 million undertaking would spark an economic boom and attract manufacturing plants and long lines of trucks to a now-remote region southeast of two congested crossings between Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and El Paso. But after a ceremonial groundbreaking in 2011, construction was stymied by a lack of Mexican government funding.

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