Big Bend area officials are seeking more information about a construction company's surprise work on a rugged dirt road leading to the Rio Grande in connection with the Trump administration's plan for border walls through the region.
Officials in Jeff Davis and Presidio counties say they were first alerted to the work happening on Chispa Road through a social media video from local rancher Yolanda Alvarado, who encountered a crew using heavy machinery to clear the road on Tuesday while driving from her family's land along the border.
Chispa Road is a remote dirt road that stretches from U.S. 90 near the small town of Valentine south to the Rio Grande through wide-open desert ranches in Jeff Davis and Presidio counties. It's a relatively unknown public road – owned by the two counties – and mostly used by local landowners, Border Patrol agents and the occasional off-road enthusiast.
In an interview, Jeff Davis County Judge Curtis Evans, the county's top elected official, said he spoke to the crew with Frontier Development, Inc., and learned they were working as a subcontractor for Barnard Construction.
Barnard is the Montana firm that was recently awarded nearly $2 billion in federal contracts to build border walls in the Big Bend region.
Evans said while the construction workers did not explicitly tell him they were working on a border wall-related project, they did say the work was being done to "gain easier access to the river."
"You can surmise what that means," Evans said.
Presidio County Commissioner Deirdre Hisler told Marfa Public Radio she has since spoken with representatives of both construction firms and is "certain" the road work is tied to the wall plans.
"This is directly related to the border wall," she said.
The road project is the latest sign that the Trump administration's plan for border walls in the Big Bend area is moving forward despite widespread, bipartisan opposition.
When Marfa Public Radio visited Chispa Road Wednesday afternoon, most of the construction crew's heavy machinery was sitting at a staging area where the road turns from pavement to dirt. One small bulldozer continued to clear parts of the dirt portion, while a few Frontier Development trucks and crew members stood around the idled machinery.
According to Evans, no local officials were informed about the work before it started.
"You're not going to be able to improve a county road without commissioner court approval," he said. "I'm not pleased with them not contacting the county and going through cooperation and collaboration channels in order for everyone to be transparent."
Evans said county commissioners will take up the issue at their next meeting this month.
Both companies – Frontier Development and Barnard Construction – did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not immediately answer questions about the road work. A spokesperson for TxDOT said the work was not related to any of that agency's projects.
Presidio County Attorney Blair Park has spent the last few days weighing her county's response to what she called an "unusual situation."
"They showed up without asking anyone or warning anyone," Park said. "It's not legal, they cannot do that."
Park has spent the last few days rushing to develop a special use permitting process related to county roads, which the county currently doesn't have. Presidio County commissioners are set to consider that new process at an April 8 meeting where they also hope to hear from Barnard directly. Hisler has invited one of the company's representatives to give a presentation on the plan.
"When this Chispa Road thing blew up, I was not impressed, to be gentle with it," Hisler said. "We need to know what's going on."
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has in recent weeks modified the border wall construction plan to remove the potential for physical walls within Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park, but CBP is still moving forward with a 175-mile stretch of border wall that would run from Hudspeth County through Jeff Davis and Presidio counties. Barnard's contract covers the bulk of that project from Hudspeth to Presidio counties, while Fisher Sand and Gravel was awarded a $1.2 billion contract for the planned wall's stretch through southern Presidio County.
Hisler said officials in her county could ultimately decide to "push back" on the road project.
"All I hear from my constituents is they do not want this wall, which means they do not want improvements on Chispa Road, which would afford that to happen," she said.
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