Dive Brief:
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Now that the Supreme Court has cleared the way for border wall construction using diverted military funds, work has started on a 2-mile section of fencing at the official entry point in Lukeville, Arizona, according to the Associated Press. President Donald Trump declared a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border in February, asking to use Department of Defense funds to continue wall projects in New Mexico, Arizona and California.
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The Arizona work involves installing 30-foot steel fencing next to the official entry, one which many Americans use to move back and forth between the U.S. and popular Mexican beach resort spot Puerto Peñasco, also known as Rocky Point.
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The federal government has awarded several border wall contracts to be paid for using military funds including: a $789 million contract to SLS Ltd., based in Galveston, Texas, for barrier replacement in Santa Teresa, New Mexico; a $646 million contract to Southwest Valley Constructors for the design and construction of a barrier wall replacement project in the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson Sector; and a $141.7 million contract to BFBC LLC for design and construction of the El Centro Project 1 and Yuma Project 1 vehicle and pedestrian barrier replacement. A $187 million contract to Barnard Construction was canceled after the award was contested by another contractor, Fisher Sand and Gravel.
Dive Insight:
The Supreme Court lifted an injunction against construction of military-funded wall projects put in place by the Ninth Circuit, where the government is seeing its case through the appeals process. If the administration loses, construction could stop once again.
Outside the world of government appropriations, a private company is raising money to fund border wall construction on its own. We Build the Wall has built a one-half mile to one-mile stretch of steel bollard fencing on a piece of private property near the U.S. Mexico border in Sunland Park, New Mexico. Fisher and Gravel, according to the organization, built the 18-foot-tall barrier for between $6 million and $8 million over the Memorial Day weekend in May.
Fisher, which was one of the firms chosen to build a wall prototype in 2017, has offered to build 234 miles of barriers along the border for $1.4 billion.
We Build the Wall, on its website, has said they are in progress with another wall project but did not mention a location. According to Newsweek, the group is in talks with the city council of El Cenizo, Texas, to build a wall near a picnic area along the city's riverbank.
