$17 million a mile to replace some fencing in New Mexico?
Replacing/upgrading existing fence on dry ground should be the smoothest sailing part of this. And this doesn’t count the design and other management processes through to the contracting and oversight.
Even just at that rate, however, a full wall on the border would be $34 billion: a bargain despite the DoD graft markup.
just guessing but maybe union wages take a big piece of the pie? add fabricated structural steel at $1,500/ton avg ? no clue what a single bollard weighs tho
otoh, Fisher Industries-Arizona, has filed a formal complaint with the Corps of Engineers claiming they have been told to raise their prices in bids. I think we’d all like to know more about that: