“Very Expensive Advertising”
Ashbrit continued to purchase shipping containers and bill states for labor to stack them while the Ducey administration’s lawsuit against the Biden administration was pending.
On Dec. 14, the Biden administration filed a lawsuit seeking the removal of the container, accusing Arizona of trespassing on federal land.
The two sides reached an agreement on December 21. Two days later, the state signed a contract amendment with Ashbulit to tear down walls in Yuma and Cochise counties and transport containers to state prisons within 80 miles of the border. .
According to the invoice, taxpayers paid Ashbrit $64.3 million for the cost of demolition work and transporting containers not yet used for walls to the prison.
According to the invoice, the shipping cost to remove the container from the border was more than double what Ashbritt charged to move the container from a port in California or Texas.
DEMA spokesman Kioski said in an email that the shipment “included movement from multiple locations, which made the removal of the container more expensive.” Transport the container to the staging area, place it, remove it from the staging area, and move it to its current location for disposal at the Arizona Department of Administration. “
The final wall was about 4 to 4.5 miles long, less than half the original plan, and cost about $40 to $50 million per mile, including the cost of removing the containers.
The half-mile section of Yuma lasted four months. The 3.7-mile Cochise leg had short stops.
This project was not a total loss. According to DEMA, the state currently owns about 2,100 shipping containers parked in southern Arizona. Several online retailers say the market value of used containers ranges from $2,000 to $4,000 each, depending on condition.
Governor Katie Hobbs’ administration has no final plans for these homes, but has suggested they could be converted into affordable housing.
On February 7, Ashbulit filed a final bill, fulfilling a contractual provision to refund an unspecified amount to the state.
The total bill was $20.5 million. Returned to the state he was $150,000.
State Rep. Athena Salman D. Tempe, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said in an interview with the Howard Center that about $200 million spent on the wall could be better spent on other needs such as housing, health care and education. He said it could have been used.
“Unfortunately, all of these important areas have been neglected and neglected,” she said. “Instead, money is simply being spent on important projects and publicity campaigns to prove a political point.”
But Kavanagh blamed the federal government for wasting money on the project.
“If they hadn’t objected, we would have bought the wall,” the state senator said.
Kavanagh said the dismantling of the wall “sent a message to the entire country that the federal government is not serious about border security.”
After a pause, he added, “It’s a very expensive ad.”
This article was produced by the Howard Center for Investigative Reporting at Arizona State University. Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communicationis an initiative. Scripps Howard Foundation A tribute to the late Roy W. Howard, a news industry executive and pioneer.Contact information [email protected] Or on Twitter @HowardCenterASU.
