Now that the Pentagon has awarded nearly $1 billion dollars in contracts to two companies for the border wall, construction could begin as soon as next month.
Galveston's SLSCO Ltd. has been awarded a $789 million contract to build a wall in Santa Teresa, New Mexico.
Department of Defense officials said the wall in the El Paso border sector in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, would include a “30-foot bollard fencing and a five-foot anti-climb plate.”
Barnard Construction Company, of Montana, has been given a $187 million contract for work in Yuma, Arizona. The Yuma sector project includes an “18-foot bollard fencing and a five-foot anti-climb plate.”
Curtis Collier with US Border Watch said construction will also include an improved road rather than trails, on the US side, for the first time--which will help response time.
"Many, many times what would happen, because there's improved roads on the Mexico side, the drug cartels just outruns the border patrol down the border and crosses over in front of them before they can even get there," said Collier.
He said it's a good structure that requires a lot of welding and concrete and to be sturdy enough so it can't be pulled down.
"So we have to use concrete footers, steel pipes buried deep into that concrete. It's the only way we can maintain the fence," said Collier.
He said the next part is to buy the materials and processing.
The terrain on the border and weather could slow down the building process, just like road construction. Both projects are expected to be completed by October 2020.
Collier said there's no doubt that border fencing works, which has been proven in the El Paso and San Deigo sectors.