Originally posted August 4, 2026
Tensions are high in South Brewster County as federal contractor Southwest Valley Construction, a subsidiary of Nebraska-based Kiewit, moved heavy equipment into Big Bend National Park on Tuesday morning. Over the past few weeks, observers on the ground have spotted survey crews on roads along the river and staging areas popping up north of the park — but officials still don’t have straight answers for many of the questions anxious locals have.
In May, Southwest Valley Constructors was awarded $1.7 billion — at the time, the largest-ever up-front contract for border wall construction in U.S. history — for a project called Big Bend 4. Per the Department of Homeland Security’s website, that project entails hundreds of miles of “patrol roads” and 17 miles of “vehicle barriers” in some of the park’s most remote canyon country. The price tag raised a lot of eyebrows, particularly among those who follow the chronically underfunded National Park Service — the project is slated to cost at least two thirds of last year’s budget for the entire agency, all in the name of “national security” on a stretch of the border that sees fewer than 0.045% of illicit cross-border traffic.
Read the full story at The Big Bend Sentinel.
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