The Colorado Springs Police Department’s plans to protect its headquarters south of downtown from terrorist attacks by surrounding it with a stone and metal barricade have hit a wall.

The city said Wednesday that no contractor has submitted a bid to build the $175,000 wall around the Police Operations Center at Rio Grande Street and South Nevada Avenue. The cost would have been covered by a grant from the federal Department of Homeland Security.

Senior contracting specialist Curt DeCapite blamed the lack of response on timing and rising cost of construction materials.

“It’s a winter project,” DeCapite said. “Masonry is difficult in winter months. You can still protect it from the winter, but there are substantial costs with that.”

The project must be done by February to comply with grant requirements.

DeCapite estimated escalating construction costs would add at least 20 percent to the project’s price tag – money the city would either have to kick in or obtain through another source.

The wall was intended to prevent someone from driving into the police headquarters, which houses police brass, dispatchers, investigators and the emergency operations center, and detonating a truck bomb.

The barrier, consisting of a stone wall up to 4 feet tall with fencing on top in some spots on the building’s west, north and east sides, would be designed to withstand a 15,000-pound vehicle going 30 mph to meet a State Department “anti-ram” rating. A commercial van, the vehicle of choice for car bombers, according to the Defense Department, weighs about 14,000 pounds.

Police have said the wall was planned after a 2005 security assessment of the building by the Colorado National Guard.

“We would be remiss to not take action to protect this facility so we can continue to serve the community in the manner we do,” police Lt. David Whitlock said last month.

The building, which opened in April 1993, has never been rammed, and some council members have questioned the project.

DeCapite said the city will ask the state for an extension on the February deadline and determine if other grant money is available.

He said one source might be other homeland security-funded projects for which the city spent less than expected.

“Depending on answers from the state and the funding, in the next three to six months we would know whether we’re going forth or not,” DeCapite said.