The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently awarded a $287 million contract to SLSCO Ltd. to construct up to 15 miles of primary pedestrian replacement wall and up to 14 miles of secondary wall within the U.S. Border Patrol’s (USBP) San Diego, Yuma, and El Centro Sectors in California.
The contract includes approximately $156 million for the primary pedestrian replacement wall project and roughly $131 million for the secondary wall project.
The primary project will include replacing the existing wall with a new 30-foot-tall steel bollard wall along 15 miles in Calexico, Tecate, and Andrade, Calif. Replacement will allow USBP to better impede drug and human smuggling activities and deny illegal border crossings.
The secondary wall project will replace an existing secondary barrier with a 30-foot-tall steel bollard wall adjacent to the San Diego primary fence replacement project.
Construction for the primary pedestrian replacement wall is scheduled to begin in July and construction for the San Diego secondary wall will begin in February.
The projects are part of President Donald Trump’s executive order Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements. The order instructs USBP and other agencies to take steps to plan, design, and construct a physical wall expeditiously.