Posted on 07/17/2019 2:49:06 PM PDT by BeauBo
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), has awarded a contract to construct approximately four miles of new border wall system, consisting of four segments, located just south of Rio Grande City and La Grulla within U.S. Border Patrols Rio Grande Valley (RGV) Sector in Starr County, Texas.
The contract for this project was awarded on June 26, 2019 to Southwest Valley Constructors for the amount of $33,048,700 and construction is anticipated to begin as early as November 2019. This project includes the construction of 18-30 foot tall steel bollards, in addition to road construction, detection technology and lighting installation.
This project is funded by CBPs Fiscal Year 2019 (FY19) Appropriation. It is not a project undertaken pursuant to the National Emergency Declaration
(Excerpt) Read more at riograndeherald.com ...
Not a lot of miles, but they are totally new miles (almost all the "new" miles will be in the Rio Grande Valley and Laredo areas of South Texas). It is also top of the line wall system, going into real hot spots.
"RGV is the busiest Sector in the nation and accounts for more than 40% of the illegal alien apprehensions"
Sounds good, but 33 million for 4 miles? I hope this is because they have to build levy or something as well. I just cant understand why this would cost 8 million a mile otherwise.
A contract for three more miles were awarded the day after this award, near Fronton in the Rio Grande Valley (South of Falcon Lake, where the River turns from North/South to East/West).
Want to make that 4 miles 40 miles???
Put 90% of the money into We Build The Wall, Inc.’s gofundme account and clear away the bureaucratic roadblocks with the other 10%
What does it matter how much it costs as long as it gets built?
“33 million for 4 miles?”
I doubt there is levee for that price. Levee wall runs $20-25 million per mile.
When you get to the Western end of the Rio Grande Valley (like around Roma, where these segments are going), the American side of the river has some pretty high bluffs/banks - maybe 40 or 50 feet high.
Bollards, roads, lights and alarms could easily cost $8 million per mile. In some cases, contracts have been awarded closer to $15 million per mile for similar system. Local costs and terrain vary quite a bit.
Smaller awards also spread all the setup and cleanup and administrative overhead across fewer miles, but it is particularly hard to get a nice long run all ready to go in a single award down in the Rio Grande Valley. Lots of individual property owners and lots of Congressional limits get in the way.
They make good, capable contractors compete for each award, to help control costs.
Thanx for info
We need the wall but we also need responsible spending, thats all Im sayin.
“we also need responsible spending”
You can be sure that these awards will all be gone over with a fine tooth comb by the Left and the media (but I repeat myself).
Thats good to know. I really dont have an idea of the actual costs, but I wast guessing a million a mile seemed reasonable. Trump estimated 20 billion to get it done, 2000 miles, I just divided to get that estimate. I cant recall what the three miles of Build the wall cost.
We need minuteman.
no money for the wall but $10 billion for bailing out New York 9/11 inustry
The cost of the Wall is nothing compared to the ANNUAL cost of ILLEGALS at $134 BIILLION - every year.
20 billion for 2000 miles is 10 million per mile.
“I really dont have an idea of the actual costs”
The cheapest was the 20 mile stretch extending West from the edge of El Paso.
A straight run in flat desert, with a pre-existing road that just needed a little sprucing up, and mostly unlit. That was done for $77 million, just under $4 million per mile.
The specifications of the total “Wall System” package needed changes from place to place, as well as the different terrain-driven costs, and the different local labor and materials costs.
In urban areas, they need all the bells and whistles - bollards (maybe 30 footers, or double barriers), high speed, all weather patrol roads, stadium lighting on grid electricity, full day/night video coverage from fixed towers, clearing/grading of wide observation areas, and a whole suite of different sensor and alarm systems.
That is the kind of system going into the San Diego/Tijuana border now - a complete 18 foot bollard barrier is done, and another run of 30 footers are going in behind them (with enough technology in between to make it an a challenge for “Mission Impossible” jewel thieves). That second run of 30 foot bollards should be finishing up around Christmas, and the enforcement zone between them will monitored down to gnat’s ass. Buttoned up tight.
Out in the boondocks, a simple run of bollards and a patrol road are enough. Out there, they serve a more effective purpose as a tripwire for relatively low cost alarms and monitoring (detection) to initiate a pursuit, than they do for slowing down crossers.
So operational requirements drive different features in different places, and the terrain/hydrology is also a huge variable. In practice, costs range from around $4 million to $25 million per mile, with the highest costs in the urban areas and especially in the Rio Grande Valley/Lardeo sectors in South Texas.
P.S. 300-400 miles in The RGV/Laredo Sectors and the border cities will really transform the situation - after that the incremental value of each additional mile starts dropping off significantly.
After about 1,100 miles, it is basically not worth building any more barrier - they have so far to travel (days in some places), that all you really need are eyes on the area for detection, and a response capability (both of which are needed anyway, even where you have barrier).
Oops, youre correct.
Very good info. Thanks.
Trump should just televise this Bill Clinton speech from 1995 and then simply state "I'm Donald Trump and I approve this message."
Oh, please, please let this go viral. Not one word of commentary needs to be added.
Very short video - about 84 seconds.
https://www.c-spanorg/video/? c4351026/c
oops.. sorry link didn’t work.
try this! The clip wasn’t created by C-Span but was part of then President Clinton’s SOTU address.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4351026/clinton-1995-immigration-sotu
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.