Grandite Construction has won a $ 70 million contract to build seven kilometers of a new American-Mexico border wall in Hidalgo County, Texas, awarded by customs and border protection in the United States. It is the first new border contract awarded to the second term of President Donald Trump.
The work is funded by money originally appropriate for the year 2021, the agency said in a statement. The new work will close the wall openings left incomplete due to the contracts canceled during the Biden administration, according to the agency. Former President Joe Biden said in 2023 the Rio Grandey Wall sections would be completed, but a main contractor was never named and that work on the project did not begin before the end of the term.
The granite refused to comment on the award of the contract and there was no calendar for the break of the seven kilometers of border wall, it was available from the government.
The North -National Security Department also announced an immediate restart on April 8, three border wall projects near the San Ysidro port of entrance near San Diego and resigned from 25 environmental regulations to allow construction to begin immediately. The resignation was published in the Federal Register on April 8 and covers the projects funded by the Department 2020 and 2021.
San Diego County projects include the Jacumba Gap Wall project, less than 2 miles, the Gulch smugglers project, about 350 feet, and the 4 walls project, between 600 feet and 1,500 feet, but never built.
The award of the San Diego contract was made by virtue of an existing approach to indefinite/contracting of indefinite quantity that granted a total of $ 1.5 billion to five companies with a period of availability of five years. These companies are Granite, the joint company of Barnard/Spencer, Fisher Sand & Gravel, SLSCO and the joint company BCCG. Customs and border protection said that once the contracting capacity has been reached and the funding is received, more contractual vehicles will be awarded for the work.
“Agencies use their deviation authority under the 1.4 section of the Federal Acquisition Regulation,” said James Nagle, a federal procurement specialist by the lawyer for the law firm Smith Currie Oles. “Legal challenges for these actions may be harder than people think. Agencies have authority to give up various requirements. The two ends of the political spectrum are used to go to court to challenge the regulatory actions they like. Both parties participate in forum purchases.”
While the Texas and California projects announced are found in federal lands near existing wall sections, Tucson Sentinel reported that customs and border protection officials are planning to build about 24.7 miles from which they give a new “ primary barrier ” to close a gap in the south of the National Coronado Forest, near the Sonoita Station of the County of Cochise County.
