The Trump administration has selected four US companies to build concrete prototype designs for the US-Mexico border wall. The companies will have 30 days to complete a prototype.
“These prototypes are designed to be 30 feet (9 meters) tall and 30 feet wide. They will be close in proximity of each other,” said Ronald Vitiello, acting deputy commissioner for the US Customs & Border Protection (CBP), at a press briefing on Thursday.
DHS has chosen 4 border wall prototypes for construction in Calif. Here’s an image of what they hope the wall will look like. pic.twitter.com/C0BLAwTPaS
— Gabby Morrongiello (@gabriellahope_) August 31, 2017
In testing the prototypes, the CBP “will look at things like aesthetics, and triple resistance, how penetrable, how resistant they are to breaching…and scaling,” Vitiello said
The walls will also have places for sensors, lighting, cameras and towers.
A plan envisioned by the administration would have a see-through wall structure on immediate US-Mexico border, then a 150 foot-wide “enforcement zone,” followed by a concrete wall.
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Caddell Construction Co of Montgomery, Alabama; Fisher Sand & Gravel Co of Tempe, Arizona; Texas Sterling Construction Co of Houston; and W.G. Yates & Sons Construction Company of Philadelphia, Mississippi, were the four companies selected for the prototype project, the CBP said.
Following President Donald Trump’s January 25 executive order that called for the construction of a border wall, the CBP issued two requests for proposals for prototype wall designs – both new and replacement infrastructure – involving concrete and new material designs “to deter illegal crossings.”
CBP rolls out announcement of 4 concrete border wall prototype contractors and images of projected urban and rural border enforcement areas pic.twitter.com/Xy0mkOR4BZ
— Michelle Moons (@MichelleDiana) August 31, 2017
The four contracts range in price from about $ 400,000 to about $ 500,000, CBP said. The prototypes will be built and tested in San Diego, California.
Vitiello said the prototypes could be left in place or taken down and used elsewhere. Four more contracts, awarded for new material designs, will be announced next week.
