Army to build border wall in Grant County

A 6-mile stretch of new steel bollard fencing is coming to New Mexico’s southern border, in Grant County, under a contract announced Tuesday. 

Montana-based BFBC LLC, an affiliate of Barnard Construction, has been awarded a $78.9 million contract from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to construct approximately 6 miles of border wall with anti-climb plating, access gates and roadway improvements in Hachita, near the Antelope Wells Port of Entry. The firm has extensive experience with border wall projects in multiple states. 

Barnard Construction did not respond to a query from the Journal. 

The U.S. Department of Defense, which the Trump administration refers to as the Department of War, announced the contract and stated the project was expected to be complete by Sept. 15 of next year. 

The project is funded through military construction dollars appropriated under the 2023 fiscal year budget, according to the Pentagon. The work is to take place within the “national defense area” designated by the White House in April and encompassing the Roosevelt Reservation, a strip of land extending along the U.S.-Mexico boundary line through New Mexico, Arizona and California. 

Antelope Wells is the location of the smallest of New Mexico’s three ports of entry, connecting to El Berrendo, Chihuahua, near Janos. The crossing sees far less traffic than New Mexico’s larger ports in Columbus and Santa Teresa. It is located in a remote part of New Mexico’s Bootheel, about a 90-minute drive from Columbus or three hours from El Paso, Texas. 

The crossing sees scant traffic, in part, because road improvements on the Mexican side of the boundary lagged behind a 2013 renovation of the U.S. crossing, while the state’s other two ports support commercial traffic and services with newer facilities.