NBC 7’s Alex Presha looked into some of the challenges the companies are facing as they prepare their proposals.
Three San Diego-based construction companies are adding their names to the hat for a bid to build President Donald Trump's proposed border wall.
Currently, the government is fielding bids from contractors for the construction of a wall along the 2,000-mile long border between the U.S. and Mexico.
“We're very excited about being a part of, really, something on a national level,” said Ralph Hicks of R.E. Staite Engineering in San Diego.
He’s heading up the company’s bid process, but admitted that as things stand, there is not a lot of clarity on the project.
“We have some set goals that we've established internally that we think the federal government may ask us to consider,” he said.
There are some basics the government has asked for: the wall will likely be concrete. It will be roughly 30-feet high. It should be "aesthetically pleasing," hard to climb, and hard to damage.
Hicks said they have put something together that limits carbon emissions. They say their wall will be “smart” and will prevent tunneling.
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A representative of another San Diego firm, vScenario also spoke with NBC 7, saying their proposal is heavily influenced by their military operators and technology.
Winning a contract on the border wall could mean hundreds of jobs.
“Obviously from an economic standpoint it's going to be a very high value contract that we hope to secure and that does great candidly for our company and does candidly great for the region,” Hicks said.
On the subject of the wall’s controversy, neither seemed concern with the building of this wall having a negative impact.
"Back in the day, where they had construction for interstate highways, the Hoover Dam--all those have been incredibly controversial. So controversy typically follows large construction projects. On this particular one, we're not looking at the politics, we're looking at the work,” Hicks said.
