Cochise County, Arizona (KGUN) — Shipping containers along the Arizona-Mexico border have been officially unloaded.

In the Coronado National Forest in Cochise County, south and west of the Sierra Vista, part of the makeshift border barrier stretches for about four miles.

KGUN 9 got a close look at progress on Thursday. A convoy of two trucks was seen heading north toward Sonoita along a bumpy dirt road winding through the woods. About 15 containers were moved in the early afternoon.

Meanwhile, other equipment moved the container away from the border and placed it in an area to be picked up.

Under the demolition project contract, the state will pay management and logistics contractor Ashbulit more than $57 million. That contract also specified that containers along this section of the border would use the “Tucson Prison Final Storage Location,” and the project would take an estimated 60 days to complete.

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Then-Governor Doug Ducey signed the container border wall in the fall, saying the federal government wasn’t doing enough to stop immigrants from crossing illegally.
But after the U.S. government sued him for trespassing on federal land, Ducey agreed to unload the containers during the final days of his tenure.

Environmentalists were outraged by the container walls, which they said disrupted and destroyed animal habitats and the natural ecosystems of border areas.

“It’s great to see this happening,” said Kate Scott, who protested the construction of the first container wall. I didn’t.”

In the nearby Sierra Vista, some say containers may not be the answer, but would like to see some sort of barrier along the empty border.

“I think it needs to be improved, but it feels a little weird when it comes to shipping containers,” says Lily Speer, who works for Sierra Vista. [a barrier is] Good thing. There’s a reason it’s a national border. ”

For safety reasons, the construction site will be closed to the public until March 15, according to the U.S. Forest Service. A spokesperson for the Forest Service said it plans to host weekly media tours of the construction area to keep the public informed of progress.