SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — Thousands of semi-trucks and cars have been waiting for several hours in Otay Mesa, after technical issues shut down the border crossing.
Local officials say the backup could last until tomorrow.
It’s not just the truckers who are stuck waiting but businesses, residents and CBX passengers have also been caught in this traffic since about 9 a.m. Friday morning.
“I’ve been an Uber driver for over a year and a half and this is the first time we noticed so much traffic,” said one Uber driver, who didn't want to be identified.
For hours, people were stuck in Otay Mesa at the border crossing, as traffic barely moved.
“What I saw and I heard from other people coming from outside the border, is that there were people trying to cross the border so they blocked everything,” the Uber driver said.
California Highway Patrol says there was a technical issue that prompted border patrol to stop processing vehicles.
Matt Jones is the President of Otay Mesa’s Chamber of Commerce and says he sympathizes with everyone who got caught up in the chaos.
“One of my co-workers at the Chamber was stuck for four hours for four blocks. So, you have all of the travelers at CBX trying to get north, you have all of the businesses trying to get north and it was an absolute mess,” Jones said.
Jones says he understands that issues may arise at the border, but he believes a lot of the congestion could have been avoided if the intersection were open at Airway and Le Media Roads.
The City of San Diego closed the intersection last November so that it can be expanded and re-paved but Jones says the project needs to be completed as soon as possible.
“We have thousands of people trying to get through one small intersection and it just creates this cluster. When the trucks are stopped waiting to queue, to go into Mexico, there is no division between the trucks and the passenger cars and that’s really the big issue,” Jones said.
CHP says they believe the technical glitch has been fixed but the backlog of semi-trucks and other vehicles will take some time to resolve.
CBX is asking all of its passengers to plan ahead and give themselves extra travel time as processing vehicles continued into the evening.
WATCH RELATED: Gov. Newsom visits San Diego to highlight new efforts to protect Californians from gun violence (February 2022)