FIRM SEEKING TO CLIMB INTO TRUMP'S FAVOR

Riverdale Mill plans bid for Mexico border wall

A Bay State company that has built security fencing for highvalue buildings throughout the world is looking to get in on the action when President Trump’s southern border wall goes out to bid.

“This is not a political situation for me, it’s a matter of employing people,” said Jim Knott, chief executive of Riverdale Mill, a wire mesh company in Northbridge. “If the wall does happen, and it happens to be specifically a mesh fence or something along those lines, I think it’s important to participate in it in order to keep our Massachusetts people employed.”

Riverdale primarily makes marine products such as lobster traps, but also makes secure fences. The company’s fencing, which is used around ports, Army and Navy bases and several embassies, is a grid of welded steel or iron that is spaced closely enough to foil people with wire cutters and to prevent climbers from gaining a foothold or fingerhold. Knott said, during tests, it took Army Special Forces soldiers 45 minutes to get through the fencing, compared to about six seconds for a chain-link fence.

Riverdale fencing already makes up about 23 miles of the U.S.-Mexican border. The stretch was installed during former President George W. Bush’s time in office.

That fencing is 5 feet deep — to prevent tunneling — and 20 feet high. Riverdale’s section contributes to about 700 miles of fencing that has been installed on or near the border, primarily in California, Arizona and New Mexico.

The Trump administration made clear this week that it plans to pay for the wall using taxpayer funds and recoup the costs from Mexico later. Although a White House spokesman said Trump was planning on paying for the wall by implementing a 20 percent tax on goods imported from Mexico, he later walked the claim back and said the idea was one of many possible funding mechanisms.

And though it is unclear whether the wall will cover every inch of the nearly 2,000-mile southern border, Knott anticipates the process of putting a multibillion-dollar government project out to bid will take some time. And even once the proposal is complete, building the wall won’t be an easy task, he said.

The border is filled with uneven terrain, particularly in Texas, that will likely make construction difficult. On top of that, much of the land running along the border and the Rio Grande is privately owned, which means securing the right to build could be a challenge.