Posted on 07/22/2019 2:07:33 AM PDT by BeauBo
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is seeking your input concerning the construction of a levee/border wall system in Rio Grande Valley (RGV), Texas. CBP is accepting comments until Monday, August 26, 2019.
CBP proposes to design and construct approximately 95 miles of new border and levee wall system in Starr, Hidalgo, and Cameron counties, including the design and construction of (1) approximately 52 miles of border wall system in Starr County, Texas; (2) approximately 24 miles of levee wall system in Hidalgo County, Texas; and (3) approximately 19 miles of levee/border wall system in Cameron County, Texas.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbp.gov ...
It will fundamentally transform the busiest sector of the border. I estimate that some minority of this effort requires the use of some of the emergency funding, but they don't specify how much.
Key words in the title: “wall off”
Start this week. This has waited FOREVER.
Thumbs up!
Maps can be seen by opening the .pdf linked at the CBP announcement.
chrome-extension://oemmndcbldboiebfnladdacbdfmadadm/https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2019-Jul/Fiscal%20Year%202019%20Rio%20Grande%20Valley%20Border%20Barrier%20Projects%20Request%20for%20Input.pdf
These will basically all be “new” miles of barrier, rather than replacement.
Seeking input?!
Quit stalling and screwing around. What is this? An ploy to stifle criticism that the wall is not really being built? Just do it. Come back to us when you get it done.
“Start this week”
Construction is already underway for segments near McAllen (RGV-002 and RGV-003).
Since they are proposing to do this as FY19 projects, that means that the Rio Grande Valley - the busiest border sector, which is also the most expensive and hardest to build, will get done (barring a lawsuit of some sort) as a first term accomplishment for the President.
They plan to put FY19 money on contracts, to do essentially the whole Rio Grande Valley. Construction would then be expected to be massively underway as we head into the election, and very difficult for a Leftist Administration to stop, even if one was elected in 2020.
These will be “new” miles - the kind that the Left is trying to say Trump has ignored/failed to build (even though “new” or “replacement” don’t really matter, “most effective” next mile is what does).
The Rio Grande Valley is in fact the main battle to secure the border (the big border cities of San Diego and El Paso) are getting done already). Everything after the Rio Grande Valley will be relatively easier and cheaper. Laredo will be the next big thing (~50 miles), but after Laredo, we are are looking at significantly smaller incremental challenges, as we work down the priority list.
Getting the RGV done, would be a major transformation. It alone accounts for about half of the total illegal immigrant apprehensions on the Southern border now.
My input, why wasn’t this done years ago? Get it done now!
“What is this? A ploy?”
This is a routine step in the construction process. Actually, it is a kind of super-express step - just a few weeks, while other tasks are running concurrently.
Unlike the routine construction process however, the Secretary of Homeland Security can and does waive the really time consuming reviews that can often drag on for years (like in the case of the Keystone XL pipeline). Things like environmental impact statements, endangered species, and literally dozens of other potential long delays. That ability to waive all those delays has already been challenged and upheld in court.
So this comment period just makes an opening for really valid comments/concerns - not for the kind of lawfare delaying attacks that the Left is famous for.
“why wasn’t this done years ago?”
It is kind of like “Speak now, or forever hold your Peace” at a wedding. The planning has been done, just doing a last check, in case there is something you don’t know, that you don’t know.
I support this having been done last year.
It walls off a large part of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Reserve so I assume those areas of the NWR just go back to being unmanaged territory?
This is legally required procedure. No kidding - any new Federal construction *requires*, by law, a comment/input period.
Thanks for the updates.
Much appreciated.
L
To paraphrase an America Hating Goat humping, Allah FUBAR screaming Sand Uyghur CongressCritter: Build that MotherF***er!
“I assume those areas of the NWR (South of the new wall) just go back to being unmanaged territory?”
This occurred a bit East of there during the Bush Administration as well. They continue to manage the land as a wildlife reserve (there are gates for access). It becomes a more pristine and less disturbed reserve.
The public gets less access, but the actual wildlife reserve is likely to grow, both in fact, and in practice. Some landowners South of the wall will sell their property to Government, and it could be added to the reserve. Others, just fall into disuse, and revert to wild land.
Some residents continued to live in houses South of the wall (still do). They typically have to drive a bit out of their way for an opening in the barrier (33 openings were left back then, where roads crossed), or for a gate they had the access code for. A contract is currently being executed to install motorized gates with keypad access in those old openings in the barrier around Brownsville/Cameron County, so all residents will need keypad code access.
A good bit if the land that will be South of the wall, is rich alluvial soil, in the flat floodplain of the river, that makes excellent farmland. Farmers have continued to work land South of the Wall from the Bush-era Secure Fence Act construction, and other farmers will mostly continue to work their existing fields when the new segments go up.
That is a big reason for the public comment period - to make sure that everyone who is going to need gate access for their property has been identified, and accommodation planned. My understanding is that the Government is willing (and funded) to buy everyone’s land South of the Wall if they want to sell, or accommodate them for access if they don’t. Owners don’t get a choice on the strip of land needed for the Barrier itself though, as well as a patrol road and 150 feet to the South for a cleared observation area.
Exactly. Noise to meke it look like there is progress.
Propose, comment, plan, study, coming soon, later, tomorrow.
Build it now already!
“Noise to meke it look like there is progress.”
Notice that they specify this as FY19.
Fiscal Year 2019 ends 30 September - in two months.
The Congressionally appropriated money is good for five years, but they are probably going to have to get the DoD money from the emergency declaration on contract before 30 September.
So, get it built and quit stalling.
I did notice.
I have also noticed promises of mass deportations. I’m still waiting to see that.
I also noticed claims that new wall is being built. Now I find out it has almost all been replacement wall.
I understand the feral judges problem but I’m getting tired of waiting to see some actual change.
The tear gas repel this weekend is the most positive act I have seen lately.
The President is really good at mouthy tweets and has made some administrative changes but he isn’t doing much apparent good on the front of enforcing laws that exist. How can anyone prevent him from doing that?
I am trying to cheer you up, and to get some of the good news to you as well.
It is not all good news, that’s for sure (our enemies get to try their tactics as well), but the media works night and day to filter and spin their reporting, to discourage our side.
The real story with the border wall - the real significant change from the last years and decades - is that a very concrete (a little pun there) and credible effort to transform the toughest and most important part of the border is getting very close to beginning.
I have been following the wall planning and construction daily (with some human days skipped here and there), since the President’s inauguration, and have been posting progress reports on Free Republic to keep our fellow Conservatives abreast of developments.
A clear pattern, or sequence of events is evident in the planning, contracting and construction of segments of the wall. The time required to step through those stages of getting a particular segment built has shortened, as the details have been worked out, and ways to overcome the challenges have improved - but the sequence is a quite reliable indicator.
This public comment period signals that they are finalizing/certifying the specifics of a segment, just before putting it out for bid. Early on, there were long delays between getting the funding in hand, and having all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed, well enough for Government employees to risk the Contracting Officer’s (and certifying Engineers and official’s) careers on a binding contract. In 2017, it basically took into 2018.
While the first few segments were underway however, they went ahead and continued to prepare/detail the follow-on segments, in order of the priority list (even establishing the priority list itself took most of 2017). The result of all that preparation and progress in overcoming obstacles, as well as the constant management pressure to accelerate, is that the time for each step in the process has gotten quicker.
When the emergency declaration was declared toward the end of February this year, DoD had their first contracts awarded in May. That is head-spinningly fast for major Government acquisition - all the more so for construction projects.
So even though the time spent on each step has changed, the sequence of steps visible to the public still go in the same order. First, we see them get the money, then ask for public comment/conduct a local community briefing, then we see waivers issued for environmental and other requirements, then we see contract awards announced (sometimes waivers come after award instead of before), then there is usually about 10 weeks for the Contractor to begin work (6-8 months from getting the money).
This specific public comment announcement indicates that these segment are being implemented - and the scope of this announcement is by far, the biggest of any so far. The Rio Grande Valley is where the Left (correctly) assessed they had best chance of stymieing efforts to secure the border. It was the main battleground, to maintain a problem that would be just too hard for future Administrations to ever crack, leaving an open, high traffic route available for mass migration. They have tried every kind of lawsuit, political maneuver, protest and media campaign there.
With all the private landowners, the extremely challenging terrain (a changing river path, subject to hurricane flooding, and construction approval subject to ratified International Treaty), as well as the ability to conveniently (urban accommodations on both sides of the border there) spread out over a 100 mile front and infiltrate through dense vegetation, with no physical barrier.
The Rio Grande Valley Sector accounts for about half the total apprehensions on the Southern border. It is also the closest point in the USA to the Central American Countries. It would take an additional 1,500 mile trip to go cross the border in San Diego, once they make it up to the Brownsville, Texas border.
Judging by how things have been going lately, my estimate is that at least the DoD funded segments in the RGV will be contracted before 30 September, and break ground before Christmas (assuming that the pending Supreme Court ruling is favorable in the next few days/weeks). I would SWAG (Scientific Wild Ass Guess) that DoD part to be about 20 to 40 miles worth.
Some of the other segments funded by Congressional appropriation could also reasonably follow that same timeline, but I’d expect some to lag 2-3 months, and Congress (Henry Cuellar) is likely to jam a few more particular miles in next year’s appropriations, like they did this year. So groundbreakings on various segments will possibly spread out through the first half of 2020. In 2020, we will have many more simultaneous crews working at different points, than we have seen so far.
The two significant points are:
1. This public comment announcement is not some general jawboning session - it is a concrete step that shows clearly that these particular segments are now going forward, and are well down the path to starting work.
2. The scale and impact of this effort dwarf what we have seen so far. This is the main battle, and this proposal is essentially for full victory in the Rio Grande Valley with this year’s money.
We will still need Laredo to get done, because they can serve as a feasible alternative route (albeit narrower) - but no where else along the border gives migrant flows a similar mix of advantages of wide open frontage, and short travel distance from last night’s hotel, to the ability to quickly disappear on the American side.
San Diego (the biggest urban area on the border) is getting an awesome upgrade already (with 2017 and 2018 money). A complete run of bollards is already done, from the Ocean to the Mountain, and a second run of mighty 30 foot bollards is going in behind them, which will be done around Christmas. In between there is a no man’s land “enforcement zone” exclusively for Border Patrol. Observation areas are being cleared end to end, and the tough parts of the terrain that had been left undeveloped, are now getting the heavy lifting earth moving/grading and road building to allow permanently improved high speed response. The whole enforcement zone will be lit with stadium lighting, and constantly under observation by powerful day/night cameras, monitored by a 24x7 command center, and by unblinking artificial intelligence software.
Multiple sensor/alarm systems are hidden the length of the enforcement zone, and the Border Patrol Officers there have already begun receiving powerful new technical capabilities to observe miles into the Mexico side from their mobile patrol vehicles.
San Diego will be buttoned up tight by Christmas. It has already quieted down there. El Paso has received four miles downtown, and twenty miles extending West from their suburbs (from the Western foot of Mount Cristo Rey). El Paso needs more, but it is really a matter of a small segment here or there, nothing like the huge wild expanse of the Rio Grande Valley. Calexico, Yuma, Tecate are all getting 30 foot bollards now (with roads, lights, cameras, alarms/sensors).
When the border cities and Rio Grande Valley are buttoned up, it will be a fundamentally different ball game in the contest between cat and mice on the border.
The Rio Grande Valley by far is the hardest part. This is huge. Historic.
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