# Israel's Jerusalem wall cost per foot

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israels-jerusalem-wall-cost-per-foot/827643>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 12, 2019, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israels-jerusalem-wall-cost-per-foot/827643 "2019-01-12T13:22:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2019, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israels-jerusalem-wall-cost-per-foot/827643/1 "2019-01-12T13:22:27Z")

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How long is the wall protecting Jerusalem or other area(s) and how much did its construction cost?

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**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2019, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israels-jerusalem-wall-cost-per-foot/827643/2 "2019-01-12T14:45:09Z")

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Portions already built- 525 kms

8-meter-high concrete wall comprises 10 percent of the barrier

2-meter-high electronic fence – 90 percent

Total cost so far – over NIS 10 billion ($2.6 billion)

Cost of maintenance per year – NIS 1 billion ($260 million)

Scheduled end of construction – unknown. Most construction has been stopped.

> **[The Wall, 10 years on: The great Israeli project - +972 Magazine](https://www.972mag.com/the-wall-10-years-on-the-great-israeli-project/)**
>
> It might be the biggest, most expensive and most influential construction project in Israel’s history. To mark the 10th anniversary of its inception, I will be publishing in coming days a series of stories about the separation wall and its...

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**Author:** ![SamuelA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@SamuelA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SamuelA)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2019, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israels-jerusalem-wall-cost-per-foot/827643/3 "2019-01-12T14:58:40Z")

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> [@bob\_2](#):
>
> Portions already built- 525 kms
> 
> 8-meter-high concrete wall comprises 10 percent of the barrier
> 
> 2-meter-high electronic fence – 90 percent
> 
> Total cost so far – over NIS 10 billion ($2.6 billion)
> 
> Cost of maintenance per year – NIS 1 billion ($260 million)
> 
> Scheduled end of construction – unknown. Most construction has been stopped.
> 
> [https://972mag.com/the-wall-10-years-on-the-great-israeli-project/40683/](https://972mag.com/the-wall-10-years-on-the-great-israeli-project/40683/)

So let’s say the 10% portion was 30% of the cost. So 52 kilometers of 8-meter concrete, 26 feet which is very close to the 30 foot that Trump wants, for 0.78 billion.

Total U.S. Mexico border is 3145 kilometers.

(3145/52) \* 0.78 = 47 billion dollars.

At first glance, 50 billion seems completely reasonable. You would get economies of scale from making a wall at 60 times the length. You would also expect that in a competitive bidding process for wall sections (you ideally wouldn’t give them all to 1 contractor and would use the real cost of previous sections of completed wall to get an idea of the real cost for the new sections) you could get lower costs than Israel got because the U.S. has a much larger industrial base.

Really the only problematic part is that Israel doesn’t have the rough terrain and slopes of our border, as well as basically inaccessible areas.

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**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israels-jerusalem-wall-cost-per-foot/827643/4 "2019-01-13T06:46:03Z")

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> [@SamuelA](#):
>
> You would get economies of scale from making a wall at 60 times the length.

(spiballing with too little sleep) But only on the parts you get mass produced, like slats. No matter how many slats it would still require, say, two manhours to install each one. However, with that many slats it would help a LOT if you could mechanize it.

I’ll think about it when I’m supposed to be asleep. If I’m true to form a solution will come around 5AM and I’ll forget what it was almost immediately.

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**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2019, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israels-jerusalem-wall-cost-per-foot/827643/5 "2019-01-14T15:04:39Z")

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These inaccessible areas, I assume those will be inaccessible to human passage and not just construction. Are there any pictures of these areas I could look at?

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**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2019, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israels-jerusalem-wall-cost-per-foot/827643/6 "2019-01-14T15:15:28Z")

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> [@SamuelA](#):
>
> So let’s say the 10% portion was 30% of the cost.

Why is that a reasonable assumption?