Here's What Global Building Companies Say About Designing Trump's Wall

On Febuary 24, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency announced a solicitation for the design and construction of the U.S. border wall with Mexico. That offer, which drew the interest of scores of companies, gave a deadline for wall prototype concepts of Friday, March 10. But the agency has since extended the deadline to March 20 and changed the overall scope of the project—details of which will be made available on March 8.

The list of interested vendors now runs more than 350 in number. Project-management companies, concrete suppliers, and fence-builders have thrown their hats in the ring. There are also a few trickster artists and some companies totally unrelated to the task (among them: National Public Radio). Missing from its ranks, however, are a number of the nation’s largest defense contractors and global engineering firms—the kinds of companies that might be expected to bid on an infrastructure project of this magnitude.