SASABE, Ariz., June 26 The start-up date for Project 28, nine towers designed to scan 28 miles of border between Arizona and Mexico, has been put off.
The towers equipped with cameras, radar and other electronic devices were scheduled to go online June 13, The New York Times reported. No new date has been set.
Boeing Corp. won a $67 million contract for Project 28 and similar stretches of towers. Problems with the cameras and radar scanners are responsible for the delays, the Times said.
The high-tech virtual tech is the key component of the Secure Border Initiative or SBInet, the Times said, along with old-fashioned fences and border guards. The Bush administration estimates the total cost of SBInet at $7.6 billion through 2011, but the Government Accountability Office has suggested that the likely cost is likely to be much higher.
"We are living the dividing line between the old Border Patrol and the new patrol of the future," David Aguilar, chief of the Border Patrol, told the Times.
Copyright 2007 by UPI
