Posted on 05/20/2016 8:39:08 AM PDT by conservative98
He has said that the wall would be built from precast concrete and steel and that it could be 50 feet tall, if not higher. After calling for it to extend across the entire 2,000-mile southern border, he more recently said half that length could be sufficient because of natural barriers. He has pegged the cost at $4 billion to $12 billion, most recently settling on around $10b.
Some see that as low. Theres a lot of logistics involved in this, and I dont know how thoroughly theyve thought it out, said Todd Sternfeld, chief executive of Superior Concrete, a Texas-based builder of walls. The resources alone would be astronomical.
Mr. Sternfeld, who has led major wall projects across the country and approached the Trump family last summer, suggested that Mr. Trump was overly optimistic about the cost and was underestimating the complexity of the undertaking.
Running the numbers, Mr. Sternfeld said a 40-foot-tall concrete wall using a post and panel system that went 10 feet below the ground to minimize tunneling would cost at least $26 billion. The logistics would be nightmarish, including multiple concrete casting sites and temporary housing for a crew of 1,000 workers if the job were to be completed within Mr. Trumps first four-year term.
Maintenance would be an additional recurring expense, said Walter W. Boles, an engineering professor at Middle Tennessee State University who specializes in concrete construction. Deep trench work would also be necessary for keeping a wall of that height from toppling, he said, and seismic sensors to detect digging would be wise for preserving its integrity from below.
Thats one heck of a construction project, said Mr. Boles, who assessed Patrick J. Buchanans 1996 proposal for a border barrier. Its certainly a lot more ambitious than I was imagining.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Please note that they jacked up the specifications of the project to add sinking the foundation to 10’ below grade. That is idiotic and unneeded. They are attempting to make the wall appear to be unbuildable or too expensive.
This is nonsense. I could get this wall built for less than 10 billion, depending on how high we actually want to build it.
One of the key ways to bring down the costs of the construction is to locally source the materials closest to the wall themselves, due to the cost of transporting concrete panels. In other words, look for concrete plants closest to each section of fence and have the panels locally fabricated near those sites.
The other issue is mobilization to dig the footings for the wall.
This is really a simple, albeit, large project. You do not even need highly skilled labor for this job.
It can be done by attacking it in sections. It obviously does not need to go up all at once. Each section that we build is that much less that has to be guarded closely by our border patrol.
Also, India just came up with a virtual wall system of monitoring to deal with their border with Pakistan which would be particularly helpful in areas that we deem unbuildable.
>Nobody cares about your opinion.
Aww, bless your little heart, darling.
>I am sre you are a TDS sufferer.
Please, tell me more about myself.
>No need for anti wall people to post.
Might want to see a doctor about that knee-jerk reaction. Think I’ll type slower, you might get it the 2nd time around.
The wall should be the LAST option. There are more paths, less $$, more Republic-restoring, that should be done first.
$2400 per foot. I would rip their arm off taking that contract if my company could get paid $2400 per lineal to build this wall.
$30 billion is cheap
These panels would work fine.
8 by 24’
http://www.utilityconcrete.com/Substation-Security-Wall-Panels
The real question is not how much it will cost to build a wall, but how much it will cost if we don’t build a wall.
Two heavy chain link fences, 16ft tall, separated by 25ft with a paved road in between.
Every two miles, a guard detachment...jeeps, guns, riot control...even APC's.
And lots of tear gas.
If somebody is foolish enough to get past the first barrier, they go to the maintenance chain gang working 60hrs/week (Sundays off) maintaining the "wall".
And, living in tents in the great southwest US.
After one year they would be deported with $50.
Fund it with fees for money wired out of the country. Foreigners send billions a year out of this country to family and friends.
Patrol with drones, national guard use prisoners for building the wall.
The Nationa l School Lunch Program cost $11.6 billion in FY 2012. By comparison, the lunch program's total cost in 1947 was $70 million; in 1950, $119.7 million; in 1960, $225.8 million; in 1970, $565.5 million; in 1980, $3.2 billion; in 1990, $3.7 billion; and in 2000, 6.1 billion.
Pocket change with a huge upside and benefit.
You were for Cruz. Now you are bitter. So you lash out at Trumps cornerstone of his campaign.. KMA.
Stop free welfare/education benefits for non-citizens.
Put illegals arrested for crimes (other than being here illegally) to work breaking rocks to make the gravel for the concrete to “Build the Wall”. ‘Coyotes’ get double sentences.
End ‘Anchor Babies’.
Arrest ‘La Raza’ leaders calling for the overthrow of the US Government and/or Mexican annexation of the Southwest.
Initiate a ‘Guest Worker’ program, with tight controls.
Require able bodied US welfare recipient to show up at 6 am for the local labor pool until they are gainfully employed.
Get rid of the Federal Minimum Wage for legal employees. Let the market determine wages.
Stop Western Union cash transfers to Mexico & Central America.
Replace them with electronic bank transfers with ID and pay stubs required to initiate the process.
Try putting your US dollars in a Central American bank and then sending them home later! Initiate reciprocity with those countries, i.e. make it as hard to send US dollars to your country as it is to send than back to the US.
(Stop it, BwanaNdege - enough pontificating already!)
Just show we’re serious.
Build the wall. It Will be built. It BETTER be built.
Start by deporting anyone breaking any law no matter how minor with heavy penalties for re-entry.
Move to all those “Minors” that Obama let in and scattered all over the US on our dime!
Heavily tax monies being transferred to Latin American, China, where ever.
Those measures alone will start the flood going back home. Don’t let the door kiss ya where the good Lord split ya.
Using their parameters of 50 feet tall (I don’t think it would have to be that tall really), and 10 feet below ground...assuming a 12” thick panel, that’s 2.2 cy per foot. At $450/cy, that’s an even $1,000 per foot.
Then I’d add in a pier every 10 feet, 50 ft deep, 24” diameter, with an H column extending 60 feet. I’d guestimate each pier and column to be $6k...divided by 10 adds $600 per foot...so we’re up to $1,600.
Add 30% for design and layout: $2,080
Then add for being a government job...I’d say $2,400 isn’t that far off....and there is property acquisition added to that cost...seems like a reasonable total estimate (not just construction)
But, it doesn’t have to be 50 feet tall. More like 20 feet tall, likely cutting the cost in half.
So, by my guestimations, the construction cost for the 50 ft wall is $1,600/ft...but a much more sane 20 ft wall would have a construction cost of $800-$1000, ft.
I’m curious to know what your estimate would be, and if we’re even in the same ball park.
Wong Kim ARC USSC 1997
Children born to legally residing non-citizen are born citizens. Marco Rubio is an example of this, Based on the words of the 14th Amendment. These are not anchor babies. ( and NO that does not make him an NBC, and he is NOT
Anchor babies are those born in the US to illegally residing non citizen parents. Currently the US does not enforce deporting these people or their parents. We had better start if we are to effectively stem the flow.
The snowflakes who don't have the will to protect our borders should put on their pajamas and hide behind mommy. The adults will do the job the way we did to win WWII.
FRiend, I find your estimate very, very conservative.
You could double that.
Yup, eliminate the incentives to come here, and enforce existing rule of law. This ain’t rocket science.
Yes. The unwashed never bother to put the cost into proper perspective. There’s $50 billion in fraud just in Medicare every year, and no one does a damn thing about it. The cost of the wall is a rounding error in the overall scheme of things in this country.
What is lacking is will, not cash.
see below your reply.
I ran these numbers long ago. I think 24’ tall would be plenty. It is what is used to secure substations etc.
If they lowered the wall to this height, they would need a hell of lot less in the way of foundation.
http://www.utilityconcrete.com/Substation-Security-Wall-Panels
I just saw a Federal soundwall bid where the cost psft is $22 psft, so at 8 by 24 feet you are looking at $540 per lineal foot. plus foundation, excavation and set up.
ftp://ftp.odot.state.or.us/Bridge/CostData/CostDataBook2013/cost_data_2013.pdf
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