CBX International Border Crossing, Otay Mesa, CA

Project location: Otay Mesa, California

Client : Otay - Tijuana Venture LLC
Award : Polished Concrete Award (Institutional category)

The Cross Border Xpress, located roughly between the San Ysidro & Otay Mesa ports of entry, is a one of a kind pedestrian bridge that allows travelers to walk across the U.S. – Mexico border directly into the main terminal of the Tijuana International airport. This allows travelers to park on the U.S. side and bypass the traditional border entries which usually take up to 2-4 hours to cross.

Tb Penick collaborated with the owner, architect, and general contractor to polish the 48,300 square feet of integrally colored concrete to a cream/sand finish and to also perform architectural saw-cuts throughout the project in order to epoxy set 3,300 lineal feet of 1/8” zinc terrazzo strips.

One of the challenges of this project was achieving a consistent finish due to the fact that the first floor was poured slab-on-grade and the second floor was poured on pan deck. Another challenge was addressing all of the shrinkage cracks on site. In order to do this, Tb Penick utilized a colored epoxy system to fill in the cracks. This was challenging due to the variations in color which required custom colors to be made on-site in order to allow the repaired cracks to blend in with the finished surface.

Lastly, the project required coordination efforts with U.S. Customs and Border Protection due to the high security aspect of the location on one of the most heavily fortified spots on the border. It also required collaboration with the contractor working on Mexico’s side of the facility in order to help them achieve the required finish. 

Photos by: Nathan Padilla Bowen