The wall around Yemen - a 1,800km (1,100-mile) fence to stop terrorists and refugees.
The construction of the wall started in 2008 and it will cost $8.5 billion. That’s several million per mile. It includes advanced weapons checks because Yemen is in a civil war.
The 900-km (560 mile) wall built between Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
Build for one billion dollars by EADS for Saudis - but includes other defense projects.
1.7 million US per mile as top estimate
I could use value of 2 million per mile, 2000 miles.
That gives us: Four billion to build a US wall.
Suppose the military fluff I excluded is part of the actual cost.
High end estimate is still 8 billion total.
We spend more on that for welfare, healthcare and education for illegal immigrants and their children PER YEAR.
But wait don’t you have to know what materials are called for in what quantities and made to which specification before you can estimate the costs?
$2m per mile is more like a generic wall of indeterminate height and structure.
Is this wall free standing? Does it go beneath the ground and if so how far what is the height above ground? are there another features such as pointed spikes, razor wire an the like? How many sensors and of what mix are included? how are they placed? how do they send their data? how is that data used and interpreted? What’s the cost of building the data center? ETC
All of these add to or subtract from the cost per mile. What are the difference and what are the similarities to the Saudi and the Yemeni walls?
I agree. I don’t understand why it should cost more than $8 billion.
Maybe because so much of it is in remote locations. It is necessary to transport materials and people to isolated locations, house them feed, them etc.
But still we are building soundproofing walls along highways and it is not costing that much. Some of the sound-proofing walls would be more expensive than the border wall, because they have to be both solid and sound-absorbing.