By Peter Samore | KTAR
A Valley construction firm filed two protests with the Government Accountability Office, claiming it was wrongly left out of the bidding process to construct barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border.
One protest by Fisher Sand & Gravel Co., the parent company of Fisher Industries, over an 11-mile stretch in Columbus, New Mexico, got the Army Corps of Engineers’ attention.
“The Corps has agreed that they made some mistakes and they had to do corrective action, and that contract was rescinded,” said Tommy Fisher, president and CEO of Tempe-based Fisher Industries.
At the firm’s demonstration site in Coolidge, Fisher Industries has shown members of Congress and Homeland Security officials how it can build 218 miles of barriers, with roads and security technology, for $3.31 billion.
Tempe company says it can build 700-mile border wall in six years
“They rush, and they get a contract out to someone who takes 18 months to build it, versus taking two more weeks to give it to someone who can build it in six months, and then you have a product that can last three times as long,” Fisher said.
Fisher has filed another protest, which hasn’t yet been ruled on, for 46 miles of barrier near Yuma.
“To get the right contractor and get this border protected is the right thing to do for the American public,” Fisher added.
