Campo Minutemen: Feds scout spots to build border fencing

The pictures show the fence under construction at Calexico, (restricted access) and Campo and Smuggler's Gulch - where this no construction at this time.

Feds scout spots to build border fencing

Two areas in the county are named as possibilities

By Leslie Berestein

UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

October 2, 2007

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20071002-9999-1m2newfence.html

The pictures show the fence under construction at Calexico, (restricted access) and Campo and Smuggler's Gulch - where this no construction at this time.

In its quest to have 370 total miles of border fence in place by the end of next year, the federal government is scouting places to build new fencing, including two spots in San Diego County.

Last week, a notice was published in the Federal Register that an environmental impact statement would be prepared for two proposed spots. The plan is to build 3.4 miles of fence, with roads, lights and other infrastructure, along the Pack Truck Trail adjacent to the Otay Mountain Wilderness Area.

A stretch of more than a half a mile would be built to connect with existing fence west of Tecate Peak.

Also, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman said Friday that the agency recently awarded a contract to redesign a controversial and long-delayed stretch of proposed triple fence across a deep canyon, known as Smuggler's Gulch, near the coast. Construction could be put out to bid by December.

The agency had been scrambling in recent months to complete 70 miles of fencing in different spots along the southern border by last Sunday, the end of the 2007 fiscal year. Brad Benson, an agency spokesman, said Friday that this goal has been met and includes 7 new miles near Calexico, plus two small stretches completed in Campo and Otay Mesa.

Before this year, there were 75 miles of fence along the border, Benson said. An additional 225 miles is hoped for by December 2008. The question remains whether there will be enough money to build it all.

Last October, President Bush signed the Secure Fence Act, which calls for 700 miles of new double-reinforced fencing along the border. The Customs and Border Protection agency estimates that it will cost $3 million per mile to build a primary fence alone.

But this is a best-case estimate. According to a report by the Congressional Research Service, updated last May, building the Smuggler's Gulch fence could drive up the cost of completing 4.5 miles of long-planned triple fencing in San Diego to about $96 million, or roughly $21 million per mile. The steep cost is partly because of the terrain, which requires filling the canyon with more than 2 million cubic yards of dirt.

This would bring the ultimate cost of San Diego's 14 miles of fence – the total length stretching inland from the ocean once the gulch section is completed – to $127 million, according to the report. That's more than $9 million per mile, three times the amount being estimated for the planned fencing along the nation's southern border.

“Three million dollars a mile is kind of an overall estimate,” Benson said. “It does not mean that every individual contract is going to be $3 million a mile. When all is said and done . . . you will see wild spikes. Smuggler's Gulch is a perfect example.”