The Briefing Room
State Chapters => Texas => Topic started by: Elderberry on July 07, 2020, 01:22:56 am
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Texas Tribune by Jeremy Schwartz and Perla Trevizo 7/2/2020
Tommy Fisher billed his new privately funded border wall as the future of deterrence, a quick-to-build steel fortress that spans 3 miles in one of the busiest Border Patrol sectors.
Unlike a generation of wall builders before him, he said he figured out how to build a structure directly on the banks of the Rio Grande, a risky but potentially game-changing step when it came to the nation’s border wall system.
Fisher has leveraged his self-described “Lamborghini†of walls to win more than $1.7 billion worth of federal contracts in Arizona.
But his showcase piece is showing signs of runoff erosion and, if it’s not fixed, could be in danger of falling into the Rio Grande, according to engineers and hydrologists who reviewed photos of the wall for ProPublica and The Texas Tribune. It never should have been built so close to the river, they say.
Just months after going up, they said, photos reveal a series of gashes and gullies at various points along the structure where rainwater runoff has scoured the sandy loam beneath the foundation.
More: https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/02/texas-border-wall-private/ (https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/02/texas-border-wall-private/)
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https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/border-wall-built-by-trumps-hand-picked-contractor-is-in-danger-of-falling-into-the-rio-grande/ (https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/border-wall-built-by-trumps-hand-picked-contractor-is-in-danger-of-falling-into-the-rio-grande/)
Under FSG’s design, the foundation for the wall’s steel bollards reach only 2.5 feet into the ground, less than one-third as deep as government usually requires. The shallow foundation combined with the rugged riverbank terrain is reportedly a recipe for disaster.
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Billion dollar contracts and nobody has the sense any fool would that has built a wooden fence too shallow and had the wind blow over a section. Now the government (taxpayers) gets to pour cement thru the grates like trying to keep a mountain road from being washed down the mountain side.
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Yep. Unfortunately, this design might suffer the fate of the 4 miles of concrete seawall the ACoE built on the Chesapeake Bay at Point Lookout in MD back in the '70s, to the chagrin and amusement of local watermen.
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No one ever wants to build a crib and rip-rap the bank, cuz it sucks to do... But you only do it once.
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No one ever wants to build a crib and rip-rap the bank, cuz it sucks to do... But you only do it once.
Dunno, the ACoE ended up with 4 miles of reinforced riprap...
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Trump rips private Texas border wall built by his supporters
Houston Chronicle by NOMAAN MERCHANT, Associated Press July 12, 2020
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/article/Trump-rips-private-Texas-border-wall-built-by-his-15402679.php (https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/article/Trump-rips-private-Texas-border-wall-built-by-his-15402679.php)
President Donald Trump on Sunday criticized a privately built border wall in South Texas that’s showing signs of erosion months after going up, saying it was “only done to make me look bad,†even though the wall was built after a months-long campaign by his supporters.
The group that raised money online for the wall promoted itself as supporting Trump during a government shutdown that started in December 2018 because Congress wouldn’t fund Trump's demands for a border wall. Called “We Build the Wall,†the group has raised more than $25 million promoting itself as supporting the president.
Former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon joined the group’s board and Trump ally Kris Kobach became its general counsel. Kobach is now seeking the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Kansas.
The company that built the private section in January, North Dakota-based Fisher Industries, has since won a $1.3 billion border wall contract from the federal government, the largest award to date.
The section in question is a roughly 3-mile (5-kilometer) fence of steel posts just 35 feet (10 meters) from the Rio Grande, the river that forms the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas. That’s much closer to the river than the government ordinarily builds border barriers in South Texas because of concerns about erosion and flooding that could violate U.S. treaty obligations with Mexico.
More at link.