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Bidding for the Border Wall Begins

Bidding for the Border Wall Begins

Prototypes for the “big” and “beautiful” wall must be submitted soon.

One of my best friends teaches construction safety, and she has noticed a substantial increase in work requests.

You will recall that one of President Trump’s first executive orders was for the initiation of construction of a wall on the southern border.

It turns out several of her clients are preparing bids for building the structure.

The federal government’s solicitation for the design and construction of a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico has already drawn interest from nearly 200 construction and engineering firms, just days after the notice first appeared.

Companies from 41 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have signaled their interest in being selected to work on President Donald Trump’s proposed southern border wall. As of Monday evening, about 180 different firms had answered the federal presolicitation, which the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency posted to the Federal Business Opportunities website on Friday.

The list suggests widespread interest in what could be one of the biggest—and most notorious—contracts of any infrastructure project planned by the Trump administration. Building a wall along some or all of the nation’s 2,000-mile-long southern border will require deep experience negotiating complex logistical, legal, and environmental challenges, depending on the scope of the project, about which little is yet known.

For those interested, the presolicitation can be found on the Federal Business Opportunities website; the posting specifically requests conceptual designs and prototypes showing what the wall might look like. Interested parties have to hurry, as they need to submit a prototype by March 10th.

…Following a quick evaluation, the agency will have the field of candidates narrowed by March 20. The finalists will need to submit offers with their proposed costs by March 24.

A Customs and Border Protection spokesman said in an email that the purpose of the solicitation is to develop design standards for a border wall meant to further deter illegal entry into the country. The design and construction of the project are both to be expedited.

Prototyping is a common way to decide how best to design a structure such as the proposed border wall, said the spokesman.

“Through the construction of prototypes, CBP will partner with industry to identify the best means and methods to construct (the) border wall before making a more substantial investment in construction,” he said.

The term being applied to the pace at which the bidding process is being conducted is “breakneck“.

The extreme haste of the government’s procurement process is matched only by the breakneck speed with which the government plans to build the wall. A Reuters article cites an internal U.S. Department of Homeland Security report as saying that the government aims to finish the wall before the end of 2020.

During the campaign, candidate Trump promised that the wall is going to be “big” and “beautiful”. It will be fascinating to see the winning plans…in a few, short weeks!

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Comments

I hope that it is more of a fence than a wall and that the support columns go way down into the ground to thwart tunnels. A fence structure will help to stop some of the environmental issues since the small critters will be able to cross the border.

I wonder if they could do the prototype concept for interstate health insurance?

    MattMusson in reply to Liz. | March 7, 2017 at 3:33 pm

    The fence alone is just the first step. There must be a mobile response force behind it to respond to breeches.

      casualobserver in reply to MattMusson. | March 7, 2017 at 4:31 pm

      The remote monitoring that may be used for the rough terrain sections where a wall or fence will not be built should also be used at random places along those parts with a wall/fence.

        rabidfox in reply to casualobserver. | March 7, 2017 at 7:23 pm

        Claymore mines?

          Old0311 in reply to rabidfox. | March 7, 2017 at 7:41 pm

          Won’t work. People will take a little ball of C-4 to heat some coffee water, and before long you need some more C-4 for the claymore. Don’t ask how I know this. Hmmm! For a nice can of c-ration coffee. I have a pack of Pall Malls to trade.

casualobserver | March 7, 2017 at 4:33 pm

I laugh when I read “breakneck speed” in reference to the federal government. I would bet a dollar on a dime that the time needed per mile of wall will still be long compared to, say, building a wall around Jeff Zuckerberg’s house, Obama’s house, or any private property needed protection.

It’s all relative. Instead of decades, it might take a few years.

    Many road construction contracts have a reward/penalty clause. The construction time is agreed upon with enough flex for bad weather. You pay if you go over the date, you get more money if you finish ahead of time.

    It seems to work for roads and bridges in my state.

Has our government gotten smarter lately? They are actually asking private contractors to design it rather than a government committee, which would cost 3 times more and take 3 times longer.

Why can’t they use the illegals sitting in our federal prisons? If they happen to walk south during a potty break and don’t come back, so be it.

but…what about the alligators?

I want a moat with some alligators, dammit!

2nd Ammendment Mother | March 7, 2017 at 10:35 pm

Just a couple of fun bits:

the El Paso City Council put an item on their agenda today to deny any city contracts to businesses who bid on wall work

In many areas, the first work to be started willbe maintenance the Obama Administration refused to perform in order to render the existing wall useless.

For those of us who already have walls on our property along the international boundaries, it has worked quite nicely.

Perhaps we should engage the Chinese to help build the wall. They’ve been at it for over two thousand years and no one seems to mind.

In fact, one of their walls is designated and celebrated by Libs as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

“Perhaps we should engage the Chinese to help build the wall. They’ve been at it for over two thousand years and no one seems to mind.”

If you can believe the history the wall worked. The Chinese were betrayed/sold out by a Chinese.

Much like what has been happening in the USA for many years.