Thread: Border Fence Across Deep Canyon Begins Next Month

Border fence across deep canyon will begin to be built next month

By Leslie Berestein
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

May 7, 2008

More than two years after a precedent-setting move by the federal government cleared a path around environmental laws and legal challenges, the construction of a stretch of border fence across a deep canyon known as Smuggler's Gulch is set to begin next month.

The project will require cutting earth from surrounding hills and filling in the canyon with more than 2 million cubic yards of dirt, an operation so large that critics fear disastrous environmental consequences.

According to the latest plans from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the project will consist of constructing an earthen berm across the canyon to support a 15-foot secondary steel-mesh fence and all-weather patrol and access roads.

The agency said a $48.6 million contract was awarded this year to the Keiwit Corp., a construction and mining firm based in Omaha, Neb.

Elsewhere along the U.S.-Mexico border, fence construction has ranged from about $2 million to a little more than $3 million per mile, he said.

“Certainly in some areas, it is easier to construct than it is in others,â€

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