Border Construction Begins in Douglas

Lorraine Rivera

Posted: March 22, 2008 02:46 PM PDT

In Douglas there are sights and sounds of a major construction project

This is Operation Border Connection, 1st Class E6 Tony Bucholz is the mission commander, "We are excavating the whole ditch, and then we are going to pour concrete on the south slope and on the deck and put a ten foot retaining wall on the north side."

Dozens of US Navy engineers known as Seabees move graders, rollers, dump trucks and water trucks, all to improve the Douglas ditch, Bucholz said, "The banks were falling in so it basically just a place for trash to collect."

It used to look like this, dangerous for illegal immigrants; in 1997 six people lost their lives here. Then and now it's always posed a danger to agents like Mario Escalante, "You'd have areas where the ground would work as a cubby hole for bodies to hide themselves," he said.

And just weeks in to the 18 month project it already looks different. When the project is finished it'll be 1.3 miles long and it will look like a concrete canal up to ten feet tall. Bucholz said, "It's going to serve two purposes one for the water flow and as a service to the Border Patrol."

The project is funded by the Department of Defense and the U.S. Border Patrol, Operation Border Connection should be completed by 2009

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