Dive Brief:

• The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has selected 12 contractors to bid on horizontal construction work at the U.S.-Mexico border during the next five years. Valued at up to $5 billion, the work will take place within the Department of Homeland Security's San Diego, El Centro, Yuma and Tucson Border Patrol sectors and the Army Corps' South-Western and South Pacific divisions.
• The firm-fixed-price contracts, both design-build and design-bid-build, will include work on barriers, patrol and access roads, lighting, access gates, drainage improvements, levee walls and other improvements along the border, according to the Military Times. The awards were made in response to President Donald Trump’s January 2017 executive order mandating that the federal government secure the southern border. 
• The selected contractors are: BFBC (Bozeman, Montana); Texas Sterling Construction Co. (Houston); Bristol Construction Services LLC (Anchorage, Alaska); Burgos Group LLC  (Albuquerque, New Mexico); Gibraltar-Caddell JV (Montgomery, Alabama); Fisher Sand & Gravel (Dickinson, North Dakota); Southwest Valley Constructors Co. (Albuquerque); Randy Kinder Excavating Inc. (Dexter, Missouri); Martin Brothers Construction (Sacramento, California); SLS Ltd. (Galveston, Texas); Posillico Civil Inc./Coastal Environmental Group Inc. JV (Farmingdale, New York); and CJW JV (Santa Ana, California).

Dive Insight:

In addition to winning a spot on this latest prequalified bidders list, Fisher Sand & Gravel also scored another victory this month in regard to protests it filed against previous Army Corps border wall contract awards, according to the Washington Examiner. Fisher alleged in official protests to the U.S. General Accountability Office and in a federal lawsuit that the contractor selection process was unfair. 

In response to the GAO protests, the Army Corps rescinded a $187 million contract it awarded to Montana-based Barnard Construction and conceded that it had improperly excluded contractors from the bidding process. The Army Corps has not yet taken action on the other award Fisher is protesting — a $789 million contract to SLS Ltd., also on the Army Corps' $5 billion bidders' list.

There have been no task orders issued under this program yet, but they will be issued as needed through the 2024 deadline. Bobby Petty, a spokesman for the Army Corps, told the Military Times that the work could be funded either through the Department of Defense or Customs and Border Protection. 

Last month, the Army Corps issued a notice that it would start prequalifying contractors for up to $8 billion of future border wall work. The scope of work is similar to that of the $5 billion program, and, in order to qualify, contractors must have completed a similar “horizontal construction” project of at least $100 million.