Residents and business owners in Tijuana’s Otay district have secured judicial suspensions blocking tree removal tied to the Supervía Bajacaliforniana Sube-T, an elevated toll road project that would connect Otay to the Nodo Morelos interchange. The court orders came through amparo lawsuits filed against the project, according to reporting published July 10.
Jorge Alberto Gutiérrez Topete, director of the Sustainable Mobility Institute (IMOS, Instituto de Movilidad Sustentable), declined to specify how many suspensions had been granted. He told Semanario ZETA there was “closed-mindedness” among project opponents, adding that if the impacts were minimal, authorities could work with residents to mitigate them.
12 Amparo Lawsuits Filed Against the Project
According to El Sol de Tijuana, Otay merchants filed at least 12 amparo lawsuits against the Sube-T project as of July 7. A representative for the business owners said construction on Avenida Centro Comercial had been halted as a result of the legal filings. The amparos are a constitutional remedy in Mexican law that can freeze government action pending a full judicial review.
The suspensions came just hours before a planned protest in Otay’s gastronomic district. Residents organized the demonstration to oppose the construction of a bridge section through the area, which hosts dozens of restaurants and food stalls popular with locals and cross-border visitors alike.
What the Sube-T Project Would Change
The Sube-T is a state government initiative to build an elevated toll highway through one of Tijuana’s busiest commercial corridors. The road would link the Otay zone, home to major maquiladora parks and the Otay Mesa border crossing, to Nodo Morelos, a key interchange on Tijuana’s eastern side. The project is designed to ease chronic traffic congestion in the area.
For the thousands of people who cross the border at Otay Mesa daily, the corridor is already a bottleneck. Business owners fear the construction itself, and the loss of trees and street-level access, will drive away customers from shops and restaurants along the route.
With court-ordered suspensions now in place, construction timelines face uncertainty. The amparo process can take months to resolve, and each suspension must be individually reviewed before a federal judge. The project’s near-term progress depends entirely on the outcome of those proceedings.
This story was first reported by Semanario ZETA.