President Joe Biden speaks during the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021.

SAN DIEGO — In the days before Joe Biden became president, construction crews worked quickly to finish Donald Trump’s wall at an iconic cross-border park overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Biden on Wednesday ordered a “pause” on all wall construction within a week, one of 17 executive orders issued on his first day in office, including six dealing with immigration.

The order leaves projects throughout the border unfinished — but still under contract — after Trump worked last year to build 450 miles, a goal he said he achieved eight days before leaving office.

The Trump administration said it had identified $15 billion to reach a total of 738 miles, but it is unclear how many of those additional miles are under contract and what cancellation fees Biden would face to fulfill his pledge to not build “another foot.”

Biden ordered answers within two months on how much the government committed, how much it would cost to extricate itself, and whether contracts could be repurposed for other uses.

“It is remarkably opaque,” said Dror Ladin, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union who’s scheduled to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court next month that it was illegal for Trump to divert billions of dollars from the Defense Department to build the wall.

In San Diego, crews were out Thursday replacing a steel fence with imposing, tightly spaced poles topped with flat steel plates rising 30 feet, said Dan Watman of Friends of Friendship Park, a group that promotes public access to the cross-border park.

While the wall is much more formidable than the barriers it replaced, it isn’t uncommon for smugglers to guide people over or through it. Portions can be sawed with power tools sold at home improvement stores.

Despite Trump’s bravado, Border Patrol officials have said the wall was never meant to stop everyone but rather to slow their advance.