Tijuana’s new elevated viaduct opened to great fanfare this year. But just days after its full completion, the city’s top engineering group says the 14 billion peso highway already has serious design flaws. The Colegio de Ingenieros de Tijuana, a professional engineering association, identified critical bottlenecks at exit ramps. Now it is drafting a formal proposal to fix them. If you use this corridor to reach the airport, the border, or Playas de Tijuana, the problems affect you directly.
SEDENA Built the Viaduct Without Sharing Plans With Local Engineers
SEDENA, Mexico’s military defense ministry, managed the entire project from start to finish. That is unusual for a civilian highway. However, it fits a pattern established under former President López Obrador. He assigned major infrastructure projects to the military, including the Maya Train and Felipe Ángeles Airport near Mexico City.
Tijuana’s Colegio de Ingenieros asked SEDENA for design details when construction began in 2022. The military never responded. Francisco Javier Franco Casas, president of the engineering group, called it “a very hidden project” and said, “We didn’t even know what they were building.”
That secrecy has consequences now. Because local engineers had no input during the design phase, nobody flagged problems with how exit ramps connect to existing streets. The viaduct carries roughly 45,000 vehicles daily across its full length. Yet its off-ramps dump that traffic into intersections that were already congested.
President Claudia Sheinbaum inaugurated the first phase on January 30. It runs from Playas de Tijuana to the El Chaparral border crossing. Then on March 16, Baja California Governor Marina del Pilar Ávila Olmeda opened the second phase. That stretch connects El Chaparral to Tijuana International Airport.
Together, the two phases promise a 12-minute drive from Otay to Playas. That sounds transformative. But the promise depends on what happens when drivers exit the elevated roadway.
Five Lanes Compress Into Three at Key Chokepoint Near Matadero Canyon
Civil engineer Guillermo Willys Duarte leads the redesign proposal. He pointed to one glaring example at Cañón del Matadero, south of the border zone. At that point, five lanes of incoming traffic merge. Two come from the viaduct. One arrives from Avenida Internacional. Two more flow in from the El Soler neighborhood. All five must squeeze into three lanes through the canyon.
The math does not work, especially during rush hour. Traffic stacks up quickly, and the viaduct’s speed advantage evaporates.
Willys also flagged the Zone Norte exit near Tijuana’s central fire station. That ramp feeds into a tangle of local streets, including the old SITT transit bridge and the Colonia Federal traffic circle. His team is developing a new geometric layout for the area. The goal is smoother merging and better distribution across Puente México, a key connector bridge.
For the Playas de Tijuana route, Willys proposed widening the federal highway from three lanes to four. That extra lane would give vehicles exiting the viaduct enough room to merge at safe distances. “It creates an ideal transit window for viaduct vehicles to merge properly,” he explained.
Viaduct Serves Airport and Border Users, Not Most Tijuana Commuters
Franco Casas offered a blunt assessment of who the viaduct actually helps. “They are only giving priority to people coming from San Diego and people coming from the airport,” he said.
That critique matters for cross-border commuters and expats. If you live in Playas and commute to San Diego, the viaduct likely saves you time. However, if you live in Zona Río, eastern Tijuana, or near La Presa, the viaduct barely touches your daily route. It has no on-ramps or off-ramps serving those areas.
Franco Casas said the project should have included access points in Zona Río and along the Vía Rápida. Those corridors serve hundreds of thousands of residents. Without connections there, the viaduct functions more like an express lane for a narrow slice of users than a citywide mobility solution.
This is a familiar pattern in Tijuana infrastructure. Major projects often prioritize cross-border traffic because of its economic importance. Meanwhile, local commuters continue navigating the same overcrowded surface streets. The viaduct cost roughly $700 million USD at current exchange rates. So the question of who benefits carries real weight.
What Cross-Border Commuters and Airport Users Should Expect Now
For now, expect delays at exit ramps during peak hours. Morning and evening rush periods will hit hardest at the Matadero Canyon merge and the Zone Norte exit. If you are heading to the airport, build in extra time despite the viaduct’s 12-minute promise.
Willys said his team will finish the technical proposal within one month. After that, they plan to meet with Rigoberto Villegas Montoya. He serves as Baja California’s delegate for SICT, the federal infrastructure and transportation ministry. Any ramp modifications would require federal approval and funding. So changes will not happen overnight.
Still, the engineering group’s willingness to go public signals that the problems are serious enough to demand attention. Whether SEDENA or federal officials act on the recommendations remains uncertain. The viaduct is built. Retrofitting ramps and widening highways costs money. But 45,000 daily drivers are already discovering the bottlenecks firsthand, as reported by Punto Norte.