From the Article:
"To date, though, steel barriers cover just 4% of the more than 800 miles identified by state officials as “in need of some kind of a barrier.”...
...Under Abbott’s direction, state lawmakers have approved more than $3 billion for the wall since 2021, making it one of the biggest items under the GOP governor’s $11 billion border crackdown known as Operation Lone Star. The rest of the money is being used for items like flooding the border with state police and National Guard soldiers and transporting migrants to Democrat-controlled cities outside Texas...
...The construction pace has largely hinged on the state’s success securing rights to build the wall through privately owned borderland... But things picked up last year as the state began working out more agreements covering larger tracts. Through mid-June, officials had secured 79 easements covering about 59 miles of the border... state officials were in various stages of negotiation with landowners over another 113 miles. “We knew from the beginning that this was going to be the choke point, you know, one of the most challenging parts of this program,” (Mike) Novak (executive director of the Texas Facilities Commission, which is overseeing the effort) said of land acquisition. “And it proved true. But we’ve remained steadfast.”...
...the pace of building about half a mile of wall per week is expected to continue for the “foreseeable future.” At that rate, about 100 miles would go up every four years... no Texas Republican has voted against border wall funding. Lawmakers approved nearly $2.5 billion for the effort in the state’s current two-year budget...
...The scope of Texas’ wall construction — and Abbott’s broader border security efforts — are unprecedented in nature, as the federal government is generally responsible for immigration enforcement and the costs associated with it.
Even with the state’s improved pace securing easements, Novak has said land access remains the biggest challenge for the project, and “it’ll probably remain that way through most of the program.” The Trump administration encountered the same issue... Trump’s administration built just 21 miles of new wall along the Texas-Mexico border. (Unlike the other States Bordering Mexico, Texas was not included in the "Roosevelt Reservation" of land along the border - it is mostly privately owned)...
...Abbott and GOP lawmakers, are armed with a huge budget surplus and polling that shows a majority of Texas voters support the state’s wall effort and overall border spending. More than 90% of Republican voters support the wall, with 74% voicing “strong” support, according to an April poll by the Texas Politics Project...
...It’s not just land access that complicates wall construction, Novak said at the June TFC meeting, where he ticked off a list of other factors: changing soil conditions that require “complicated engineering solutions”; steering clear of irrigation systems when building on agricultural land; weather; and “sensitivity” to cattle, oil and gas and hunting operations.
“It’s a difficult and complex task, at best,” Novak said. “But with that said, we’re whipping it. The latest stats reflect what I like to call just steadfast progress.”