Headache: Border wall construction disrupts the usual peace and quiet of Granjeno

July 30, 2008 - 7:27AM
By Jackie Leatherman, The Monitor
GRANJENO - Daniel Garza now wakes up at 6:30 a.m. every day to the whirl of construction cranes twisting and turning on top of the levee 50 feet behind his Granjeno home.

A parade of dump trucks and tractors hauling construction equipment rumbles nonstop past his driveway.

He no longer takes his usual route to walk his dog in the morning.

His television set is turned up louder, and any conversation at normal volume goes unheard in his front yard.

Border wall construction has begun.

"We have to stay inside," the 76-year-old said. "There is too much noise and dirt blowing.

"They start at 6:30 in the morning and ... last night they went to 7 o'clock in the evening.

"Oh, we can't stand it. I didn't think it would be as loud as this."


A lot of work

The first hint of the border wall is now erected behind Garza's home, which sits at the sharp angle in the road where Shary Road starts heading west in Granjeno. The most prominent "No Border Wall" sign hangs on his chain-link fence.

The banging and clanging of construction equipment has shattered the comfortable silence along Granjeno's only two streets.

Thirty-three metal panels, separated by beams, lined the southern border of the levee running right behind the community early Tuesday morning.

The steely structure will temporarily hold the levee in place while the concrete border wall is poured. If the weather holds, the 1.76-mile wall should start to take form within the next two weeks.
Harlingen-based Ballenger Construction Co. is erecting the first of the seven border wall segments in Hidalgo County. Company officials did not return a message left Tuesday afternoon seeking comment.
At another segment, about eight miles east of the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, at least one crane had started peeling away grass from the side of the levee. Pasadena-based SER Construction Partners Ltd. won the contract for the 0.9-mile segment.

SER president Eddie Ramos said the crews are a little bit behind because of Hurricane Dolly's landfall last week. Crews had been slated to begin moving dirt along the two segments to start the project over the weekend.

Ramos said a crew of more than 40 men will start working 12-hour days within the next couple of weeks once the concrete starts.
"They have to move a lot of earth, first," he said.


Levee barrier

The exact dates of when construction is expected to begin on the next border wall segments couldn't be confirmed late Tuesday afternoon. Hidalgo County spokeswoman Cari Lambrecht could only say it would be "soon."

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security divided up 22 miles of Hidalgo County border wall into seven different segments along levees throughout county.

The concrete wall will also reinforce the county's ailing flood control system.

Environmentalists, business owners and government officials have adamantly opposed the wall's construction here, but county officials say at least they are getting needed levee repairs to ward off a flood. Hidalgo County is using its own voter-approved bond funding to repair portions of the levee, some of which are also border wall sites.

The construction caps years of controversy surrounding the 670-mile barrier designed to curb illegal entry to the United States along the nation's border with Mexico. The entire project is slated for completion by the end of this year.
Granjeno resident Garza and nearly all of his neighbors opposed the wall, especially when the federal government threatened to take their backyards for its construction.

Now that the plan has moved onto federal property, many of the landowners have resigned themselves to the project, though many of them maintain the wall won't stop the daily illegal traffic cutting through their yards.

For the next five months, at least, the number of illegal immigrants using Granjeno as their gateway to the United States should subside.

In their place -for at least 12 hours at a time - will be a cloud of dust and dirt punctuated by a handful of metal crane booms reaching far beyond treetops.

Great story .....
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