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 ...
“According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), 2,220,300 adults were incarcerated in US federal and state prisons, and county jails in 2013”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States
If we can incarcerate over 2 million citizens we can damn well figure out a way to send 11 million illegals home. My guess is free plane tickets home will work for most of them....
The wall and fence built in the last ten years hasn’t been exactly on the border...for ease of construction and patrol/repair. In some instances it has been built hundreds of feet from thd border - orphaning parts of people’s land. I really dont know if the government pays to purchase the land or if they just buy easement - but I assume there is some compensation, in areas where there is privately owned property at the border.
It depends on the foundation structure. I always think of Trump’s description as painting with a broad brush. There are collapsible/expansive soils issues in Texas and other places which may not allow a uniform construction method along the entire border.
I am only familiar with my area of the border and there is an actual border right of way here. I used to think that was true of the whole border but found out that is not true.
In some areas it is government land, managed by BLM or Forest and the Border Patrol actually pays for plant damage. So crazy as it sounds one government agency is paying another to have roads on the border and use them.
I was just told that in parts of Texas landowners actually own right up to the border, I did know the fence is not right on the border in some areas but in this area the vehicle barriers they put up are not quite on the actual border but very close.
Under the right leadership many would self deport.
What the Times ignores in its background piece, is that the Eisenhower deportations removed well over a million, I believe over a million & 1/2. It also ignores the far greater deportations of ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe after World War II, as well as the transfers of large numbers of displaced persons, etc., from the West.
Many of the claimed legal problems could be resolved by a simple act of Congress, limiting the jurisdictions of Federal Courts--clearly within the powers granted to Congress in Article III.
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