By Bethany Blankley
The Center Square

Despite an ongoing government shutdown, the U.S. Army, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and contractors are actively constructing miles of new border wall in Arizona.

In one region, they’ve begun constructing 15 miles of border wall at the Barry M. Goldwater Range in Arizona. The portion of the border wall is a “critical project” that will protect “a vital military installation” and strengthen border security, the Department of War said.

The range borders Mexico, the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, the Sonoran Desert National Monument, and the Tohono Oʼodham Nation. It’s primarily used for air-to-ground bombing practice by roughly 20 squadrons from the U.S. Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy. Pilots who use the range are stationed at Davis–Monthan Air Force Base, Luke Air Force Base, Tucson Air National Guard Base and Marine Corps Air Station Yuma. Air National Guard from multiple states also train there.

Spanning more than one million acres, its combined air space is geographically larger than the state of Connecticut, making it “an invaluable and irreplaceable asset.”

Currently, the barrier at the range is a dilapidated 12-foot mesh fence with holes cut in it to crawl through and it’s climbable.

Similar fencing exists in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection El Paso Sector in New Mexico, The Center Square has observed. The mesh fence there is also being replaced with the same steel bollard wall structure.

Approximately $230 million worth of contracts were awarded to construct the range section of the wall in Arizona.

The steel panel wall structure is nearly identical to what has been built in Texas by the first and current Trump administration, The Center Square has reported.

The wall is comprised of 30-foot-high steel bollard panels. Each panel has eight steel six-inch square bollards about four inches apart, with anti-climbing plates at the top. A panel is generally 8 feet by 32 feet, erected in concrete and weighs roughly 9,000 pounds.

The wall system is enhanced with gates, roads for patrol, cameras, lights and other technology to detect movement and illegal traffic. Construction in this section involves building a road along the primary wall for Border Patrol and law enforcement to use as well as a secondary barrier on the other side of the road.

Border wall barriers in Arizona also include concrete levee walls with steel bollards and temporary barriers like concertina wire, razor wire, chain link fence, enhanced with smart technology, CBP has explained.

BFBC LLC, based in Bozeman, Mont., was awarded the contract to build this wall section, with a completion date expected next August. Funds were awarded through Section 2803 of Title 10 of the U.S. Code which allows the Secretary of War to implement military construction projects deemed vital to national security.

In May, $891 million was awarded in contracts to New Mexico-based Southwest Valley Constructors to build 43 miles of the border wall along the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. The International Biosphere Reserve lies adjacent to the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge.

Since the first Trump administration in 2016, the Army Corps of Engineers has constructed roughly 450 miles of border wall and barriers along the southwest border.

CBP is overseeing the majority of border wall construction and awarding the majority of contracts. It recently awarded $4.5 billion in new contracts to add 230 miles of barriers and nearly 400 miles of technology as part of a Smart Wall system along the southwest border, The Center Square reported.

In Arizona, this includes $199.5 million awarded to Barnard Spencer Joint Venture for the Yuma 1 Project to construct 60 miles of system attributes in the CBP Yuma Sector. It also includes nearly $607 million awarded to BCCG Joint Venture for the Tucson 1 Project to construct 23 miles of new secondary border wall and 66 miles of system attributes in the CBP Tucson and Yuma sectors.

Overall, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act allocated $46.5 billion for Smart Wall construction, which includes a new primary border wall system and double layers to include secondary wall and waterborne barriers, CBP explains. It also includes completing parts of the wall that fell into disrepair during the Biden administration.