32-mile wall to be constructed along Arizona-Mexico border, feds say
Nov 15, 2018, 12:40 PM
A Border Patrol agent checks his phone next to a new stretch of border wall in Calexico, Calif., Friday, Oct. 26, 2018. U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen will later visit the new 30-foot-high border wall that is replacing a 2-mile stretch of older barriers between the U.S. and Mexico in Calexico. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
(AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
PHOENIX — A wall will soon be built along more than 30 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona after being given the go-ahead by federal officials, it was announced Thursday.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a contract to Barnard Construction Company, Inc. on Tuesday to construct up to 32 miles of a wall between the Yuma and Tucson sectors.
The wall, which is called a “primary pedestrian replacement wall,” will improve border officials’ abilities to interfere with and deny people who are illegally crossing the border and stop the flow of drug and human smuggling into Arizona.
The construction will also include building and installing “upgraded tactical infrastructure” along five miles in Lukeville and 27 miles in Yuma.
The total value of the contract, including options, is $324 million. The project was funded through money appropriated to the department.
Construction on the wall is expected to begin in April.
