AIS Infrastructure says contracts advance construction into multi-year design-build awards, with labor and equipment impacts across the Southwest
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A $2-billion package of border infrastructure work announced this week by Tennessee-based contractor AIS Infrastructure signals a renewed execution phase for U.S.–Mexico border construction across Texas, Arizona and California.
The Chattanooga-based heavy civil contractor said Dec. 16 that the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection have awarded four major design-build contracts totalling more than $2 billion to BCSS, its unit focused on border and security-related infrastructure work.
The projects are located in the Del Rio sector near Eagle Pass, Texas; the Tucson and Yuma sectors in Arizona; and the San Diego sector near the Marron Valley–Campo area of California, according to the company.
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AIS | Press Announcement
ENR could not locate public award notices for the projects on SAM.gov or USASpending.gov by deadline, and the awarding agencies did not respond to requests for comment. Even so, project titles, locations and scopes described by AIS align with border infrastructure project descriptions previously released by the agencies for similar sector-based work—suggesting the awards fit within their broader border barrier system program.
AIS said all four projects are being delivered under full design-build contracts, with HDR Design leading engineering and BCSS executing the work through a joint venture with Caddell Construction and Gibraltar. Engineering is underway, with field construction anticipated to begin in January and continue for roughly 30 to 36 months.
AIS Infrastructure is a subsidiary of ASRC Industrial, which ranks at No. 125 on the ENR Top 400 Contractors list.
The projects combine physical barrier construction with supporting civil infrastructure and integrated systems, reflecting DHS’s use of bundled delivery rather than stand-alone barrier segments.
Map shows the locations and contract values of four border infrastructure projects AIS Infrastructure says it has been awarded, spanning the San Diego, Tucson–Yuma and Del Rio sectors along the U.S.–Mexico border.
AI Image/ENR
Two Del Rio-area projects, valued at $565 million and $364 million, are focused on work near Eagle Pass along the Rio Grande. AIS said the scopes include vertical barriers, waterborne barriers, patrol and access roads, drainage infrastructure and integrated technical security systems. Homeland Security planning documents for Del Rio-sector border work have historically emphasized riverine conditions and floodplain management, which can complicate access and sequencing.
The $483-million San Diego-area project covers mountainous terrain near the Marron Valley and Campo communities, says AIS. Work includes vertical barriers, mountain access and patrol roads, and advanced security and detection systems. The Customs agency’s environmental planning documents for the San Diego sector have described projects there as heavily weighted toward access roads and system attributes due to steep topography, limited staging areas and environmental constraints.
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The $606-million Arizona project spans the Tucson and Yuma sectors and includes improvements to existing barrier systems, new vertical barriers, extensive patrol and access road construction, drainage work and integrated security infrastructure, AIS said. Homeland Security descriptions of prior Arizona-sector projects emphasize long stretches of remote desert terrain, flash-flood-prone drainage channels and need for durable access roads to support year-round operations.
To support the four projects, AIS said it plans to hire 350 to 400 additional workers and deploy nearly 100 new pieces of heavy equipment by next March. That expansion comes as contractors across the Southwest continue to compete for skilled labor amid strong highway, water and energy construction activity.
The joint-venture structure and bundled design-build delivery underscore how contractors are managing risk in politically sensitive, logistically complex federal work. Rather than fragmented task orders, the projects reflect multi-year execution packages that concentrate delivery responsibility among a limited group of experienced firms.
AIS said an additional $3.7 billion in indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity border infrastructure contracts are under review and cited a total program allocation of roughly $39 billion. While future awards and schedules remain subject to federal procurement processes and policy shifts, the scale and coordination of the announced projects point to a more sustained construction pipeline than the industry has seen in recent years. President Joe Biden in 2021 halted border wall projects that were begun in the first Trump administration.
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For contractors and designers, the significance lies less in the announcement itself than in what follows: simultaneous design-build execution across multiple sectors, heavy labor and equipment mobilization beginning in early 2026, and a border infrastructure program moving from planning back into the field.
“These are long-term infrastructure projects that involve complex roads, bridges and access systems,” AIS Infrastructure President Stephen Christensen said, adding that the work will require a significant ramp-up in skilled labor.
