Tamaulipas to expand Nuevo Laredo’s World Trade Bridge to 18 lanes as crossing weighs 24-hour operations

Tamaulipas’ state government announced on August 3, 2026, that construction will begin in the second half of the year on an expansion of the World Trade Bridge connecting Nuevo Laredo and Laredo, Texas, adding a new eight-lane parallel structure alongside a widening of the existing span from eight to ten lanes, for a combined 18 lanes dedicated to cargo traffic.

In parallel, U.S. and Mexican customs authorities closed a survey in late July asking transportation and trade groups whether the crossing has the staffing and capacity to operate 24 hours a day. Both efforts target the same crossing and share the same goal: increasing throughput at what officials describe as the busiest commercial cargo crossing on the Mexico-U.S. border.

Tamaulipas Secretary of Public Works Pedro Cepeda Anaya said construction on the World Trade Bridge will begin in this second half of 2026, widening the existing bridge body from eight to ten lanes and building an additional eight-lane parallel structure, bringing total cargo capacity to 18 lanes. Cepeda Anaya said the expansion is intended to speed up crossing times, lower logistics costs and strengthen the region’s competitiveness.

The state government said roughly half of Mexico’s cargo transport moves through this single crossing, and that the expanded bridge is positioned to become the busiest commercial crossing in Latin America by trade volume.

“We might look to bring some of that cargo from Colombia to Laredo, because it’s also going to give our bridge more competitiveness,” said Pedro Lozano, delegate in Nuevo Laredo of the Cámara Nacional del Autotransporte de Carga (CANACAR), referring to the possibility that more lanes could draw shipments currently routed through the Colombia Bridge in Nuevo León. Lozano added that 172 additional customs officers have already been assigned to the Laredo port of entry.

While the lane expansion moves forward, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Mexico’s National Customs Agency (ANAM) launched a 13-question survey on July 27 directed at carriers, importers, exporters and customs brokers, asking whether the World Trade Bridge should operate around the clock. The survey, open through August 2, is meant to determine whether the industry has enough staff and operational capacity to sustain continuous service — the crossing briefly ran 24 hours in 2018, but the schedule didn’t generate enough sustained demand to continue.

The results will help estimate staffing needs and determine whether continuous operations should move forward. Industry representatives noted that adding personnel and extending hours could be a more immediate step than the physical lane expansion, which will take longer to complete.

A wider, and potentially round-the-clock, World Trade Bridge would ease one of the most persistent bottlenecks for companies moving freight between Mexico and the United States through Nuevo Laredo — a crossing already handling roughly half of the country’s cargo transport. Companies with cross-border logistics tied to this corridor will want to track both threads separately: the lane expansion is a multi-year construction timeline, while the 24-hour question could change operating hours much sooner if the survey supports it.

Río Bravo supports companies managing cross-border logistics and customs operations through corridors like this one. Schedule a call with our team to learn more about how we can support your operations.

Sources: Secretaría de Obras Públicas de Tamaulipas, Tamaulipas Government in national media