Building Resilience Through Technology at Land Border Crossings

The 1,254-mile Texas-Mexico border is home to some of the busiest land ports of entry (LPOEs) in the world, enabling over 70% of goods traded between the United States and Mexico. However, these critical transportation nodes face persistent challenges that compromise their efficiency and resilience, including severe congestion and vulnerability to disruptions caused by extreme weather events, infrastructure failures, and security incidents. Addressing these challenges is critical to ensuring the durability of cross-border operations. The objective of this project is to develop a scalable, AI-powered system that enhances the operational resilience of land border crossings. The system will integrate emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) to improve real-time monitoring, disruption forecasting, and stakeholder communication. Core research tasks include the development of a Concept of Operations (ConOps) to define system functionality and stakeholder roles; the creation of predictive models to anticipate disruptions and improve operational planning; and the production of a deployment and scalability guide to support future replication. The anticipated outcome of this research is the development of a system capable of predicting and anticipating disruptions in order to improve operational resilience under adverse operating conditions. Additionally, the system will serve as a replicable model for other U.S. land ports of entry, offering a scalable solution that integrates predictive analytics with real-time communication protocols. The approach directly supports national and regional goals of enhancing infrastructure durability, operational efficiency, and public safety in transportation systems, while also contributing to workforce development and knowledge transfer in the domain of resilient cross border mobility.

• Record URL:
  • https://www.sptc.org/cy3-tamu-01

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $125,000.00
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3552348306 (CY3-TAMU-01)

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Southern Plains Transportation Center

  University of Oklahoma
  202 W Boyd St, Room 213A
  Norman, OK  United States  73019

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  University of Oklahoma, Norman

  School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science
  202 West Boyd Street, Room 334
  Norman, OK  United States  73019
• Project Managers:

  Ghasemi, Hamid

• Performing Organizations:

  Texas A&M University, College Station

  Zachry Department of Civil Engineering
  3136 TAMU
  College Station, TX  United States  77843-3136
• Principal Investigators:

  Puppala, Anand J

• Start Date: 20260101
• Expected Completion Date: 20270101
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Artificial intelligence; Border crossings; Disaster resilience; International borders; Internet of things; Ports of entry; Predictive models
• Geographic Terms: Texas
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Operations and Traffic Management; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01976205
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Southern Plains Transportation Center
• Contract Numbers: 69A3552348306 (CY3-TAMU-01)
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Jan 12 2026 4:08PM