Does the Fence Make Sense?

It might in Hidalgo County, if flood-control efforts pay off

Regardless of which side of the controversial project you may be on, the Texas Border Fence project is nearing completion.

By Angelle Bergeron

The strategic border initiative wall through Texas–also called the Great Wall of Mexico, “disgraceful and shameful” by former Mexican President Vicente Fox and a “necessity for national security” by former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff–is nearing completion.

Posterity will determine which moniker sticks.

A section of post and rail with mesh in mid-construction in El Paso. (Courtesy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.)

President Obama, new Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Congress, meanwhile, still have to determine how much more of the 1,900-mi Pacific-to-Gulf barrier is funded for construction, but in Texas, work on the wall will end this year when the 116 mi of fence that comprise the state’s planned portion will be complete.

“All of our fence contracts have already been awarded, and the only exception would be the gates that go in the Rio Grande Valley sector,” says Todd Smith, program manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is performing program management for almost all fence portions of the project in Texas for the Department of Homeland Security. Fence builders will leave gaps for gates, and a separate contract for gate construction will be awarded this year, Smith says.

Ameristar ornamental style fence in Eagle Pass. (Courtesy of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.)

About 61 mi of fence had been constructed in Texas by early January, and 18 contracts worth $423.9 million had been signed for construction of primarily pedestrian fence, according to the corps’ Fort Worth District. All are scheduled for completion by the end of April. Although some portions of related contract awards include ancillary items, all of the fence constructions are similar.

“Generally, it is the same type of fence construction with some minor differences,” Smith says. For example, the 18-ft-tall fence that was to be placed in El Paso is primarily wire mesh panels supported by structural steel, 18 ft tall. “It features a dual layer of welded wire fabric turned perpendicular to each other so it looks like a checkerboard of wire,” Smith says.

advertisement

“In some areas we are putting in a wrought iron type fencing that is 15-ft high. In other areas we are using a bollard-style fence that is made up of 6-in. steel square tubes that are spaced with 4 in. between the steel tubes.” The bollards are 18-ft long, placed 6 ft into the ground and capped with a welded-on pyramid shape.

“Key criteria were being able to have visible access for patrolling north of the fence, and the height,” says Loren Flossman, project manager for tactical infrastructure of the strategic border initiative, or SBI. “The fences need to be able to provide persistent impedance. That means it doesn’t stop someone from coming, but is designed to discourage and slow down traffic.”

Gates are located at various distances along the fence, depending upon local requirements and needs of constituents, Flossman adds.

The fence becomes a levee

The exception to the “visible access” criterion is in Hidalgo County, where roughly 22 mi of the SBI double as flood-protection structures. “We’re not in the immigration business, but the flood-control business,” says Godfrey Garza, general manager of Hidalgo County Drainage District No. 1 for the past 12 years.

Jersey-style fence with bollard in Presidio. (Courtesy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.)

Garza says the HCDD got involved in constructing a portion of the SBI in 2007 when the International Boundary and Water Commission decertified some of the county’s levees that were constructed in the 1940s and ’50s. “It doesn’t matter what time of year it is, the Rio Grande brings water from western Texas and northern Mexico,” Garza says. “We had to reconstruct some of the levees.”

The decertification translated into a Federal Emergency Management Agency issuance for locals to buy mandatory flood insurance. “Until the levees are fixed and certified, our residents will be liable for flood insurance,” Garza says. “We will be paying about $130 to $140 million of flood insurance per year until the levees are fixed, about $100 million worth of levee repairs.”

The HCDD No. 1 had previously sold $100 million in bonds to make improvements to the internal drainage system, with $10 million of that amount allocated to levee improvements.

In light of the IBWC decertification, the HCDD board of directors thought it prudent to invest the total amount into levees rather than internal drainage, Garza says.

Because of the DHS mandate, the requisite levee improvements now have to meet the SBI standards as well. The HCDD No. 1 bond money made it possible for the district to enter into a cooperative agreement with DHS on a 22-mi section and pay only 35% of total construction.

The HCDD No. 1, performing program management for the DHS on this portion of the SBI, began with design last April, with construction commencing August 2008. “In the areas where we partnered with DHS, we are constructing concrete T-walls,” Garza says. The T-walls are so called because they look like an inverted T, with 27-ft-wide footings and 14- to 17-in.-thick walls that rise to the SBI requisite height of 18 ft.

Jersey style with mesh fence in El Paso. (Courtesy of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.)

HCDD No. 1 is also constructing, at its own cost, 8 mi of earthen levees in areas that DHS hasn’t specified as security risks, Garza says.

“It’s a little frustrating in that we felt we did a good job in partnering with DHS to resolve flood issues in our area,” he adds. “Then we hear that we are building a border fence.”

The district is hoping it will be reimbursed by the federal government for the levees so it can reroute that money into its original internal drainage improvements. It is also hoping to get a chunk of the anticipated $221 million infrastructure stimulus allocation to the IBWC. In the meantime, about a dozen contractors were at work on the 30 mi of levee/SBI projects in Hidalgo County in February, racing to an anticipated April completion.