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On this graphic you can see how the contracts being awarding now will fill the gaps in the existing barrier. The five green gaps East of the Santa Ana Reserve will be filled with this award (called RGV-02). The Western Gap (labelled Butterfly Center), will be filled by the contract awarded last week (RGV-03). The three gaps in the Center will probably be awarded next week (RGV-01, I'd guess). All together, they will close off what is now the busiest part of the whole border for illegal crossings. Additional contracting is underway in the Rio Grande Valley, further East and West of what is shown in the graphic.

These are small task orders being awarded as part of a large contracting effort that was built over the last two years.

This big standing contract is titled the Border Infrastructure Eastern MATOC for horizontal construction, primarily located in Rio Grande Valley, Laredo, Del Rio, Big Bend and El Paso Border Patrol Sector. There is another one for the Western half of the border - California, Arizona, New Mexico). Those two big contracts are now ready to roll in earnest (just add money).

Everything is already planned out, and the vendors have been pre-certified into a pool that bids on each segment task order, so the Government continues to get a competitive price. The awards will just be doled out in small chunks like this individual task order. The long lead time contracting work is done, so task orders can now be awarded in a few months. There is a backlog of already funded segments that are now starting to drop.

Work will start on these segments in February (or earlier), and construction will probably run six months to a year.

San Diego is already getting a double layer of solid new barrier from the Ocean to Otay Mountain, and they are halfway done with the first run already.

The West side of the Port of Entry in Calexico, California is now finished with 30 foot bollards, and Secretary Neilsen announced that the East side will be getting 11 more miles on the East side next year.

20 miles of new bollards has recently been completed on the Western flank of El Paso, and now we are building in downtown El Paso. The Secretary also mentioned that some amount in Arizona is also included in what has already been funded.

The bottom line is that we are going to have many more concurrent segments being constructed in 2019 than we had in 2018. These include totally new barrier where none previously existed, and a big effort in the Rio Grande Valley, where more than half of illegals currently enter.

Here is a bigger picture of the Rio Grande Valley, showing the existing barrier in orange.

Brownsville got more the last time, and traffic has since shifted to McAllen, which is getting the first of the new barrier. 60-70 miles got built the last time.

We need about 100 new miles to button up the Rio Grande Valley. At least 33 new miles have already been funded, for which we are now seeing contracts awarded.