Steel for border wall going up in Arizona made by company with Trump PAC ties

[demmiblue]

A company that heavily lobbied President Trump is part of the lucrative business of constructing the new steel wall along the border in Arizona.

An up-close look at the 30-foot-tall, rust-colored steel poles that make up the wall recently erected along the border in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument reveals the words “Atlas Tube” on them.

Atlas Tube is the Chicago-based division of Zekelman Industries, a company run by Barry Zekelman, a Canadian billionaire who led a wide-ranging effort to urge Trump and other officials to place tariffs and import quotas on steel. That effort included a $1.75 million donation to a pro-Trump super PAC and meeting with Trump and others in April 2018.

The $891 million in contracts to build 43 miles of wall on Organ Pipe and part of the adjacent Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge were awarded in May to Southwest Valley Constructors, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. Southwest Valley Constructors is a New Mexico-based affiliate of construction giant Kiewit.

...

The rest of the wall on Cabeza Prieta will be built by Fisher Sand and Gravel, which is under scrutiny by the inspector general of the Department of Defense. The company’s head, Tommy Fisher, led what he called a “whirlwind media campaign” and paid lobbyists more than $100,000 to discuss the wall with lawmakers.

The inspector general probe, which is ongoing, came after the Washington Post quoted officials saying Trump personally and repeatedly urged the head of the Army Corps to award a $268 million contract to Fisher, even after Fisher’s bid was rejected. The value of the contract could rise to nearly $400 million if all options are exercised.

https://tucson.com/news/local/steel-for-border-wall-going-up-in-arizona-made-by/article_381e40e4-cc00-5280-ac9f-f8e60ce3449c.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_TucsonStar

Link to tweet

[Hermit-The-Prog]

1. No doubt there will be more ties revealed over time.

[mitch96]

9. That's how squid pro quo works.. you do for me, I do for you

Hell thats how this whole gov't works... You vote for my bill or pet project and I'll vote for yours..
Hopefully we can make a bucket full of money in the process, eh?
YMMV...
m

[TheBlackAdder]

16. Dang! Normal graft to contract ratios are 25:1 or 30:1. This is absurd even in crime syndicate land.

[democratisphere]

2. What would a drumpf racist border wall be without construction corruption.

[superpatriotman]

3. I'm surprised it is dump-owned

I’m sure there are plenty of kickbacks and graft

[captain queeg]

4. As an aside, looks like new wall sections are "weathering steel"

Unlike the usual way steel structures are handled (painted) weathering steel is left unpainted so a thin layer of oxide, rust, forms and protects the steel from further degradation. You see a lot of bridges looking like this.

Or maybe the contractor is just going the cheap route using regular steel and not painting it. I could imagine the master builder Donnie would allow his buds to get away with that.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

10. It's rust ...

I don't know why the reporters keep calling it "rust colored" when it's just plain old rust.

Unlike aluminum, the oxide layer that forms on steel doesn't protect it; it just flakes off to expose more steel to oxidation.

Even with paint, rust never sleeps. If moisture gets under the paint, the iron oxide swells up and pushes the paint with it as it flakes off:

[captain queeg]

14. Not going to argue but I suggest you google weathering steel, aka COR-TEN steel.

[mopinko]

5. is that why people were cutting holes in it 10 minutes after it went up?

[kentuck]

6. Corrupt to the core.

Rotten.

[SunSeeker]

7. K & R for exposure.

[underpants]

8. Chicago based/Trump affiliated

Gotcha

[bluestarone]

11. You can bet somebody (whole bunch of them) is

Making LOTS of money off this fucking wall!! wouldn't freedom of information act tell us WHERE the money is going? Maybe the House should request subpoenas to get this information!!

[Wounded Bear]

12. How swampy of them...

[abqtommy]

13. Here's a new nickname for Trump: Kickback Jack. Don't ever use this to refer to tRUMP the

Kickback Jack King.

[TheBlackAdder]

15. So, it's 90% Chinese and 10% Canadian content, like the Trans-Alaskan & Keystone Pipelines?

[struggle4progress]

17. "You too can buy a government contract!"