To build Abbott's border barrier, Texas will use surplus wall panels from the federal government

by Uriel J. García, Texas Tribune


After the Biden administration halted the construction of former President Donald Trump’s border wall, hundreds of unused wall panels were left at construction sites.

Now 1,700 unused panels — declared surplus property by the federal government — have been shipped from California to help build Gov. Greg Abbott’s state-funded wall, according to spokespeople for the U.S. Department of Defense and the Texas Facilities Commission.

The Biden administration halted virtually all work on the federal wall in January 2021. Lt. Col. Chris Mitchell, a spokesperson for the Department of Defense, which had been in charge of awarding some of the federal wall contracts under Trump, said the 32-foot-tall steel bollard panels were at a storage site in San Diego.

The Texas Facilities Commission, the state office in charge of Texas border wall construction, applied in November to receive the surplus panels through the federal government’s General Service Administration, a program that allows nonprofit organizations and state and local governments to receive property the federal government no longer needs.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/15/texas-border-wall-federal-surplus-abbott/

There are enough panels to build 1.3 miles of border wall.