Eight North Carolina companies have registered interest in designing and building the proposed wall that President Donald Trump wants to erect along the U.S.-Mexico border — including a Triad firm, Triad Business Journal reports.
Barrier1 Systems Inc. of Greensboro appears on the U.S. Custom and Border Protection’s list of “interested vendors.” The company makes anti-terrorism crash-rated vehicle barriers, including those used at nuclear power plants and by the U.S. Department of Defense.
Other companies which registered interest with a North Carolina address include:
- Martin Marietta Materials Inc., Raleigh (supplier of aggregates and heavy building materials)
- Vincent Barbour and Co., Cary (commercial real estate firm)
- LaunchLab Ltd., Cary (software company)
- Jenesia1 Inc., Powellsville (mobile communications)
- NKE Inc., Wilmington (new company, incorporated in January 2017)
- RC Ventures Inc., Marble (construction)
- KGR International, Aberdeen (Texas energy company with North Carolina presence)
The 30-foot wall must “meet requirements for aesthetics, anti-climbing, and resistance to tampering or damage,” to the U.S. government says in its presolicitation notice. The first phase of the procurement process is to “acquire and evaluate available wall prototypes and provide some initial construction of some wall segments, but is not intended as the vehicle for the procurement of the total wall solution for the border with Mexico.”
A total of 737 vendors, not all in the construction industry, registered interest in the project, which U.S. Customs and Border Protection divided into two RFPS, “one focused on concrete designs, and one focused on other designs.” Most of the firms are from Texas and California, although Arizona, Virginia and Florida have strong showings, as well.
Funding for the wall has not been determined. The Department of Homeland Security has estimated the cost of the wall at $21 billion, but at least one university study, from MIT, puts the price tag at $38 billion, reports NPR.
