In Texas, companies await word on Trump's border wall

Kirsten Crow | Corpus Christi (Texas) Caller-Times

Show Caption Hide Caption Impact of Donald Trump's 'Great, Great Wall'? A look at the socioeconomic and environmental impact of a 2,000-mile long wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Federal officials are handpicking companies who want a shot at building a border wall — but it's not yet clear whether any contractors from Texas, where the longest stretch will be, are still in the running.

About 40 companies in the state expressed interest in participating in the project in some capacity. The majority on the list appear to be subcontractors, vying for smaller chunks of work in what would be a mammoth-scale structure that would traverse about 2,000 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border.

It appeared only a handful of Texas businesses proposed actually overseeing the project, designing and constructing a wall.

Nationwide, hundreds of companies responded to the request for proposals.

At stake now is only the construction of a prototype — not an award for the construction of a border wall itself — to show federal administrators what the contractors’ border wall designs would look like in real-life.

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Late last week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced 20 or fewer contractors had been chosen to make it to the second round — moving past the bid portion and forward into detailed plans for prototype construction. Contractors would be individually notified whether they would continue the process of pitching their work to the government.

In an online notice, CBP stated the agency will not release the names of the companies that made it to the prototype stage, or the number of contractors who would be extended that opportunity.

CBP has said it would not release contractor companies' names until contracts are awarded.

At least one of Texas’ larger companies isn't in the running by choice.

Zachry Federal Construction Corporation, a San-Antonio based, heavy civil engineering company, initially entertained the proposal but backed out. A spokeswoman in an email wrote there were several factors that led to a decision that "pursuing this project did not make sense.”

Some contractors have expressed doubts about the funding of the project, or frustration about continued amendments to the proposal and subsequent delays.

The second phase of the process involves the selected bidders bringing forward elaborated proposals that would include budgets and constructing a mock-up; the third step would be to award a contract to the top companies, which would oversee construction of the actual wall.

Construction of border wall prototypes is expected to run between $200,000 to $500,000 each, and is planned for a portion of federal property along the San Diego-Mexico border, according to the Associated Press.

But there are questions on whether the full-scale project would get far amid contentious federal budget battles and heated debate over the ethics and efficacy of constructing a wall on the border. It's disputed, but by some estimates the wall would cost billions of dollars that hasn’t been allocated.

Raba Kistner, a San Antonio company that would offer geotechnical and construction materials engineering, directly noted the funding question in an email to the Caller-Times.

“Though we are aware some prime contractors may be opting out of the current border wall effort due to short term funding shortfalls, Raba Kistner remains postured to provide specialized services to potential providers seeking to build sections of the border wall in Texas,” wrote John K. Borland, Raba Kistner federal programs director.

The wall’s design must be between 18 and 30 feet tall, “physically imposing,” and prevent the building of tunnels for 6 feet underground, as well as any climbing efforts, according to federal specs. The portion of the wall that would face the U.S. side of the border should be "aesthetically pleasing in color, anti-climb texture, etc., to be consistent with general surrounding environment." The proposal was also to include a wall made of concrete and another made of other materials.

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Designs submitted by Texas contractors included one called the Talon Wall by RS-1 Holdings that would feature opportunities to use sensors as well as “architecturally pleasing aesthetics,” according to an email to the Caller-Times.

“Dyed concrete coloring and other treatments are available for the sovereign-side or the foreign-side of the wall,” the email states. “The foreign side is also pleasing to the eye, albeit imposing. At 30' and cantilevering overhead, scaling would be ridiculously difficult. The underside of the concave foreign-side could be easily lit by LED illumination.”

Robert Ober, chairman and founder of RS-1 Holdings, said he sees the wall’s design as an opportunity for function and beauty — something more akin to a monument recognizing the sovereignty of each country. The Talon Wall is based on an ancient design that still looks somewhat modern, he added.

While the conceptual papers describe the wall as “imposing,” Ober said that didn’t mean it had to be ugly. The Lincoln memorial, too, could be described as imposing, he said.

"It should be a thing of beauty and a thing Americans can be proud of, not seen as a Berlin wall or prison wall," Ober said. "Some of that fence down there is pretty darn ugly. I'm not impressed."

On Friday, Ober received notice that the company had not been selected to head into phase 2 based on some technicalities.

But there is an option to have a debriefing — which his company is pursuing — in which clarifications can be made on pending questions.

They’re not counting themselves out because they believe their design is viable, Ober said.

Another design, by the Dallas-based Penna Group, included not just illustrations, but also a video. The business states it “interviewed dozens of Border Patrol agents” when crafting their proposal, according to the website.

Michael Evangelista-Ysasaga, chief executive of the Penna Group, told the Associated Press that he had been subject to roughly a dozen death threats after it was learned the company was considering participating in the project.

Of the contractors who proposed to design and build a wall prototype, at least three were smaller businesses who saw opportunity on the horizon to orchestrate a large-scale project sans big company names.

Aubrey Campbell, president and CEO of Camseco Investigations and Security Systems, said he worked with a small business engineering team to put together a proposal.

Although it was a serious proposal and he was sure his group could compete with the bigger companies in terms of experience, he hadn’t been optimistic that they would be selected, in part because they didn’t have the money backing.

As of Thursday morning, he had not received notification whether his team had been selected and was assuming at that point that they were not.

His focus is now on subcontract work.

“Once that list gets released, we’ll put a campaign together to get (the prime contractor’s) attention,” Campbell said.

He estimated that 5 miles of work on the structure would equate to about five years of work.

Campbell wants President Trump and officials to know “that there are people in Texas that are doing construction and security work for the government (who know) the border and kind of know why we’re doing this.”

Larger companies have the advantage, said James Carpenter, the president of Mission-based Quantum Logistics. But he’s confident that he could carry out the job with his background and experience.

His concept papers describe a background that includes “the construction of security fencing, barriers and barricades” and work in Iraq and Afghanistan.

On Monday, Carpenter said he hadn’t heard yet on whether he would continue on to the next step of the project. He could not be reached later in the week.

Carpenter’s conceptual documents for a concrete wall include integration of “seismic sensors which, when activated, will send an alert to a security station, activate CCTV cameras to the activated location, and deploy a drone or unmanned aerial vehicle for further investigation,” as well as “the ability to deploy small ‘suit case size’ drones for the purpose of patrolling, investigating possible perimeter breaches, maintenance inspections, thermal imaging mapping, with all data transmitted in real time HD to Border Patrol agents in the field.” On the U.S. side, it would be decorative, according to the document.

The funding of the wall “is not where our hearts are now,” Carpenter said.

His focus is primarily on security, he said. For him, living in a border town, he’s seen up close and personal the effects of human trafficking.

“It doesn’t involve money, it doesn’t involve the politics of the situation,” Carpenter said. “It involves our community.”

It’s also an opportunity for economic stimulus — not just labor, but for ancillary businesses from barber shops to restaurants, Carpenter said.

His group is trying to stay out of the politics, he said. So far, they haven’t seen the blowback some companies have reported.

“Being a veteran, I’m just a dude, I’m just a soldier answering the call of our commander-in-chief,” Carpenter said. “If it was the previous commander-in-chief putting this call out, I’d be doing the same thing.”

Ron Hale, of private security firm NZ Control Services, said he received a letter Wednesday stating that the company had been disqualified for being unresponsive — the reference, he said, was to the company not submitting questions. But the group hadn’t had any questions, Hale said.

Some other contractors he spoke with were also disqualified for unclear reasons, Hale said. He doesn’t think any of the Texas businesses were selected.

He alluded to funding as a thorn.

“I don’t know how many times they pushed (the process) back and pushed it back,” Hale said. “It makes me think they’re not moving forward at all.”

Contributing: The Arizona Republic, the Associated Press