SOURCE: SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE
URL:
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/economy/sd-fi-trump-border-wall-awards-20170503-story.htmlby Phillip Molnar
Companies that applied to build prototypes of a border wall between Mexico and the United States could find out as early as next week if they have been selected.
Up to 20 bidders will discover on or around May 8 if they have been chosen from among hundreds of companies competing for the project, according to an update given to bidders Tuesday night from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
After selection, they must complete more detailed proposals, which will need to include pricing, detailed designs and subcontracting plans. The federal government will decide in June which of those 20 businesses build prototypes in San Diego later that month.
Money specifically for President Donald Trump’s wall was not included in this fiscal year’s budget — a blow to the administration’s agenda — but $20 million has already been allocated to build prototypes that are to set the stage for a roughly 2,000-mile border wall.
Prototypes must be 30 feet tall, non-climbable and constructed to prevent digging below the wall for at least 6 feet.
Although plans are still preliminary, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security intends to build prototypes 100 feet from the border and about two miles east of the Otay Mesa border crossing, say department documents uploaded by Democratic staffers to a Senate committee website. Contracts would be awarded by June 14, with prototype construction starting eight days later and completed by July 22, the documents said.
Border Protection told bidders Tuesday those selected will be taken to the construction site in mid-May. Final proposals will be due “on or after May 30,” said the updated bid.
Bidder James Carpenter of Quantum Logistics in Mission, Texas, said he is anxious, excited and a little nervous while waiting for the results.
“For me, it’s not about money. It’s about a groundbreaking opportunity to secure the country and answer the call of the commander-in-chief,” he said by telephone from Kabul, Afghanistan, where his company is installing perimeter security for a Department of Defense site. Carpenter is a U.S. Army veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
He said he didn’t see it as a competition between the 20 companies, more like all were contributing to the border wall.
“They may see that my prototype is beneficial for this area, and somebody else’s prototype will be better for another area,” Carpenter said.
Border Protection said four to eight prototypes would be built, and some may stay up at the construction site after work is done at the end of June.
Winning bidders’ secondary proposals, due around May 30, must include a complete cost breakdown of prototypes; a technical explanation of how it will perform in different climates and terrain; an alternative design; information on past projects and contact information for clients; and a plan for for hiring subcontractors, the bid said.
Companies must give an oral presentation of their plan and the government reserves the right to record it.
The president’s plan to build the border wall, first proposed in the early days of his campaign nearly two years ago, was part of a contentious budget fight last week. The administration was seeking $3.6 billion for the 2017 and 2018 budget for more than 100 miles of wall, including replacing 28 miles of fencing in San Diego with a wall.
Trump abandoned the push for wall funding in the budget, blaming Democrats for not supporting the need for it.
“Democrats used to support border security,” he wrote on Twitter, “now they want illegals to pour through our borders.”
Members of the Trump administration have indicated the president will continue to push for wall funding in the fall and in 2018 budget negotiations. In the meantime, there is still opposition to the proposed wall from some Republicans. Disagreement over the plan is intense in some communities. There is a bill from state Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, that would prevent the California from doing business with any company that works on the border wall.
Roughly 460 proposals were submitted to build the wall, including 23 from San Diego County. Many bidders applied to build both a concrete wall and other type of wall, meaning there were fewer than 460 companies involved.
Some bidders were actually protesting the wall idea by submitting plans for walls with nuclear waste booby traps or walls made of whimsical lighthouses.
Border Protection spokesman Daniel Hetlage said Wednesday that the agency could not reveal how many companies submitted bids because it would violate federal procurement rules and regulations. His agency did say the number of bidders was in the “low 100s.”
