$1.72 billion federal project includes 17 miles of vehicle barriers and work on about 205 miles of patrol roads
Heavy equipment is now operating inside Big Bend National Park as preliminary work moves forward on a $1.72 billion federal border infrastructure project that could bring vehicle barriers and extensive road work to one of the most remote areas of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Engineering News-Record reported Monday that federal contractors have begun work inside the national park, with U.S. Customs and Border Protection describing the current activity as soil assessments ahead of full construction.
Southwest Valley Constructors Co., a subsidiary of Kiewit Corp., received the fully obligated task order in May for the project, known as Big Bend 4, or BBT-4.
The project calls for 17 miles of noncontiguous, low-profile vehicle barriers, along with improvements and maintenance involving about 205 miles of Border Patrol roads or deployment of detection technology, depending on the location.
The planned barriers differ from the tall bollard-style pedestrian border wall constructed elsewhere along the southern border. According to ENR, the Big Bend barriers would consist of steel posts and continuous rails at alternating heights of approximately 4 and 6 feet.
CBP says the design is intended to prevent vehicles from crossing while relying on Big Bend’s rugged mountains, canyons and other terrain as natural barriers.
The project’s road component could have a considerably larger footprint. ENR reported that roads classified as “functional class-1” can be as wide as 24 feet.
Heavy equipment has already been documented inside the national park.
Marfa Public Radio reported seeing equipment bearing the Southwest Valley name near Cottonwood Campground on Aug. 4. Photographs published by Engineering News-Record also show a bulldozer and excavator working along a cleared roadway beneath cliffs in Big Bend National Park.
CBP told SFGATE that the clearing currently underway is being conducted to assess soil conditions and determine excavation depths and base requirements for the proposed roads and barriers.
The agency said that activity does not constitute the formal beginning of BBT-4 construction. ENR reported that CBP did not immediately clarify how the current work differs from the official start of construction.
The distinction comes as opposition to the project continues to grow among conservation organizations, Big Bend-area businesses and others concerned about permanent changes to the national park and surrounding borderlands.
A coalition of conservation groups, local businesses and national companies sent an Aug. 4 letter to U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz and Gov. Greg Abbott urging Texas officials to press the Department of Homeland Security to abandon the proposed roads and physical barriers and use surveillance and detection technology instead.
“Our senators and governor may be the last line of defense standing between access to the Rio Grande and permanent, irreversible damage,” the coalition wrote.
The Trump administration has waived federal procurement and environmental requirements to accelerate border infrastructure construction, limiting regulatory processes that would ordinarily apply to major construction in environmentally and culturally sensitive areas.
Big Bend National Park protects more than 800,000 acres of Chihuahuan Desert, mountains and Rio Grande river corridor and contains some of the least-developed stretches of the U.S.-Mexico border.
PHOTO: Federal contractors use heavy equipment for preliminary work inside Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas ahead of a $1.72 billion border infrastructure project that includes 17 miles of vehicle barriers and work involving about 205 miles of patrol roads or detection technology. Photo by Cristóbal López, courtesy of the National Parks Conservation Association, via Engineering News-Record.
