The U.S.Department of Defense has awarded nearly $1 billion in contracts to two companies for construction related to a wall along the southern border on 9 April.
According to Pentagon’s statement, SLSCO Ltd. from Galveston, was awarded a $789 million and Barnard Construction Co. Inc. from Bozeman was awarded a $187 million contract for border replacement wall construction.
Work will be performed in Santa Teresa, New Mexico and in Yuma, Arizona. Six companies submitted bids for the first contract, with three received for the second. Both projects are expected to be completed by fall of 2020.
The companies’ contract calls for the construction and installation of “tactical infrastructure,” which includes building a reinforced concrete levee wall to the height of the existing levee; installing 18-foot-tall steel bollards on top of the concrete wall; removing vegetation within the 150-foot enforcement zone along the path of the new levee wall; building an all-weather patrol road next to the wall and the installation of “detection technology,” lighting and a video surveillance system.
This marks the first new wall construction contract under President Donald Trump’s Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements executive order, which he issued back in January 2017, almost immediately after taking office.
