EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Leaders with El Paso County and the State of Chihuahua are eying upgrades and investment to the Tornillo Port of Entry and the surrounding area to support a portion of the Borderland region’s commercial-vehicle traffic as the Bridge of the Americas (BOTA) is set to eliminate all commercial cargo operations with impending renovations.  Feds moving forward with ‘no-commercial’ traffic option on BOTA project “We're making some investments in the (Tornillo) port of entry, and we're looking at the area around the port of entry to see what type of infrastructure may be needed. So, at the County, we're doing whatever we can to make sure that the port of entry therein Tornillo is prepared to handle additional commercial traffic once the Bridge of the Americas stops accepting that traffic,” El Paso County commissioner for Precinct 3, Iliana Holguin, said after a press conference held on Thursday afternoon.  Tornillo Port of Entry Holguin, whose precinct encompasses the Tornillo area, said they’re initiating these efforts now so that the region is prepared to handle the change in commercial traffic once renovations to BOTA are completed. “We don't want that day to come and neither the County nor any of our partners are prepared to handle that projected increase in commercial traffic,” Holguin said. “We know that once commercial traffic is removed from the Bridge of the Americas in the next couple of years, there's going to be a need for additional commercial crossings. We have the port of entry in Tornillo, which was built to handle exactly that type of traffic, but It isn't utilized as much as some of the other ports of entry just because it is a little bit further away." This is the first of several meetings both sides plan to have as they move along in the process. Currently, El Paso County is conducting studies of the Tornillo area to determine what resources have to be poured in to maximize its capabilities to handle increased commercial traffic.  “We're trying to learn the needs of some of the Mexican industry that may be using the Tornillo Port of Entry. So, we've asked the secretary of Economic Development for the State of Chihuahua to help us as we reach out to some of those Mexican companies,” Holguin said.  Ulises Fernandez Gamboa, the State of Chihuahua’s cabinet secretary of Economic Development said they will be supporting El Paso County in their efforts and highlighted the importance of maintaining the region as a leader in commercial exchange.  “The State of Chihuahua is the largest exporter in Mexico and also one of the top five FDI (foreign direct investment) destinations for different industries like aerospace, automotive, electronics,” Gamboa said. “So, we're expecting that in the coming years, the investment and the cargo that we’ll be exporting from Chihuahua will be duplicated. Therefore, in order to maintain our competitiveness, it is quite important to reinforce the infrastructure at the different crossings that we have with Texas mainly." Holguin said that they’re trying to gather input from all stakeholders who would be affected by these changes and said that she’s heard that the people of Tornillo welcome the economic development that could flourish in the area as a result of the investments.