Construction start nears for Big Bend area border wall

From Marfa Public Radio:

Construction on the Trump administration’s Big Bend area border wall is set to start within weeks, as shipments of what appear to be steel bollards have begun arriving in the region and at least one “man camp” housing facility for workers is being developed.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is still pursuing an approximately 175-mile long, 30-foot tall border wall that would stretch from Hudspeth County through Jeff Davis and Presidio counties to the western edge of Big Bend Ranch State Park.

In a statement, a CBP spokesperson told Marfa Public Radio that installation of border wall panels for two segments of the wall – the “Big Bend 1” project across Hudspeth County, and the “Big Bend 2” project running from Ruidosa to Presidio to the state park – is scheduled to start in late summer or early fall.

For the Hudspeth County project, the agency said it has “obtained voluntary Rights of Entry for Construction (ROE-C) with some landowners which allows CBP immediate access to private property to complete surveys, land valuation/appraisals, and to begin construction activities.”

At a newly cleared plot of land south of Van Horn, Texas last week, Marfa Public Radio saw multiple piles of what appeared to be steel bollards sitting inside a gated lot. The site is located at the entrance of Chispa Road, a rugged dirt road leading to the Rio Grande that border wall contractor Barnard Construction has used in recent weeks to move equipment for the project to the border.

Marfa Public Radio on Friday shared an image of the site and its location with the CBP spokesperson and asked if the agency could confirm if the lot is a staging site for the border wall. The spokesperson declined to do so, saying the agency doesn’t confirm the location of staging sites, but said the piles of steel looked like border wall panels.

Also last week in Hudspeth County, local rancher Yolanda Alvarado – who has loudly opposed the wall – shared a video on social media of similar steel bollards that she said were stacked next to an existing small border wall segment near Fort Quitman, Texas. The northern edge of the planned border wall is in that same area.

The red lines indicate where the Trump administration is planning to build a 30 foot-tall steel border wall. Screenshot / U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Three construction firms – Barnard Construction, Fisher Sand & Gravel and Southwest Valley Constructors – have in recent weeks received billions of dollars in Department of Homeland Security contracts for the border wall and related infrastructure across the Big Bend region.

Though CBP has not provided a construction timeline on one segment of the planned border wall – specifically, the “Big Bend 3” project through the small town of Candelaria and across the most remote stretches of northwestern Presidio County.

Still, that project appears to be moving forward as well.

Barnard is now involved in developing a “man camp” housing facility for construction workers at another site in Lobo, south of Van Horn. On Thursday, Marfa Public Radio saw a mobile-home type building at the man camp site with a sign showing Barnard’s company logo and “Main Office” for “BBT-3” – the shorthand name for the Big Bend 3 project.

Barnard has become ensnared in an apparent dust-up with locals in Hudspeth County, where the company is also gearing up to begin construction.

The advocacy group No Big Bend Wall said Friday in a social media post that it had documented the company’s crews using another remote county road to the Rio Grande without permission from local officials.

Barnard is now asking Hudspeth County to approve a “special use permit” for its use of the road, something county commissioners are set to consider at a meeting Tuesday morning.

Last week marked another major milestone in the Trump administration’s border plans for the Big Bend region: DHS awarded a $2.6 billion contract to Fisher Sand & Gravel for a project east of the national park through Brewster, Terrell and Val Verde counties.

The contract – apparently the largest DHS has awarded for any border projects in at least the past few years – covers a plan for vehicle barriers, surveillance technology and a “patrol road” across 157 miles of Terrell and Val Verde counties, east of Big Bend National Park.

As the Washington Post reported last week, the skyrocketing border wall contracts – now totaling more than $19.4 billion in the last six months – have mostly gone to Barnard and Fisher. That’s prompted a lawsuit against the Trump administration from a would-be rival border wall builder who claims the government dolled out billions in contracts without “genuine competitive opportunities.”

Mary Cantrell contributed reporting.