Trump Administration Details Plans for Border Wall; Keystone XL Won’t Require US Steel After All

by Jeff Yoders on MARCH 7, 2017

After several hundred companies and individuals registered as potentially interested vendors, the Department of Homeland Security has added details to its request for Mexican border wall plans and delayed the procurement process by several days.

The request for proposal is for a concrete wall structure or structures, nominally 30-ft. tall, that will meet requirements for “aesthetics, anti-climbing and resistance to tampering or damage,” according to a change in the solicitation plan posted to the DHS website on March 3.

Two-phase design-build procedures will be observed, under FAR Part 36.3, with Phase One of the RFP due on or about March 20th.

Under the procurement request, vendors must submit a concept paper of their prototype, which will result in the evaluation and down-selection. Offerers will then submit proposals to the full RFP, including prices, due on or about May 3, 2017.

Multiple awards of indefinite quantity, indefinite delivery contracts are anticipated, DHS said. Unless the full cost of the wall falls within DHS’ current budget for 2017, congress will have to appropriate money for its construction.

Not Only US-Made Steel After All

Speaking to reporters onboard Air Force One on Friday, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that the Keystone XL pipeline, which has been in the works for a decade, will be exempt from an executive order President Trump signed in January requiring new pipelines, repairs, or retrofits to use only U.S.-made steel “to the maximum extent possible.”

The justification for that decision is that the pipeline is already under construction, and so is not covered by the executive order.

“The Keystone XL Pipeline is currently in the process of being constructed, so it does not count as a new, retrofitted, repaired, or expanded pipeline,” Sanders said.

While it’s true that some parts of Keystone XL have already been built and its developer, TransCanada Corp., has likely already purchased steel for some of it, the 1,200-mile pipeline that is planned to stretch from Alberta, Canada, to Nebraska will likely require much more steel to be purchased before its eventual completion, a construction process likely to take years. The Dakota Access Pipeline that will run from North Dakota to Illinois, which has already restarted construction, was only eight miles of pipe from completion when the Obama administration stopped it last Fall and it, very likely, would not require more steel to be purchased for its completion.