Contractor appeals delay border wall prototypes
SAN DIEGO – The Trump administration said Thursday that prototypes for a proposed border wall with Mexico have been delayed until November because two companies have objected to the bidding process.
The administration initially planned to begin construction in San Diego by June. Last month, officials said they did not expect to break ground until toward the end of summer.
On Thursday, the administration sent an email to members of Congress saying appeals by two companies identified as WNIS and Penna Group delayed construction to early November, with completion scheduled for early December.
The contents of the email were provided to the Associated Press by a U.S. official who had reviewed it. The official provided the information only on condition of anonymity because it has not been made public.
Carlos Diaz, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said he had no immediate comment on the delay.
WNIS and Penna Group submitted bids to build wall prototypes but failed to make it to a second round of bidders selected in May.
Losing bidders routinely protest decisions, and additional delays are possible. The Government Accountability Office has dismissed WNIS’ protest but is still evaluating the protest lodged by Parra Group. Others may object once the winners are announced.
Penna, based in Fort Worth, Texas, proposed a wall built of solid concrete in some sections and see-through steel mesh in others. It courted media coverage after the contract was put up for bid in March.
“We didn’t enter this lightly,” Michael Evangelista-Ysasaga, Penna’s chief executive officer, told the AP in April. “We looked at it and said we have to be a productive part of the solution.”
Penna did not immediately respond to phone and email requests for comment Thursday.
The prototypes – expected to be awarded to eight to 10 companies for $200,000 to $500,000 each – should be about 30 feet long and 18 to 30 feet high. The border protection agency has said it should be impossible for people to climb it on their own and that it should be impenetrable to sledgehammers and battery-operated tools trying to damage it for a full hour. It should also be aesthetically pleasing from the U.S. side.
Building a wall on the Mexican border was a cornerstone of Trump’s presidential campaign and a flashpoint for his detractors.
The wall currently covers 654 miles, or roughly one-third of the entire border from the Pacific Ocean to Gulf of Mexico. It’s unclear when the wall will be extended under a Trump administration.
Trump’s House Republican allies have been working to give the president long-sought victory in Congress by making a down payment on the wall.