Trump's Wall 15 to 20 billion. Can we do it better and cheaper?

In My Humble Opinion
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***Please - for this discussion let’s assume a border Wall is needed. How can it be done most efficiently and also provide training & jobs? ***

Please don’t derail the thread with debates over the need for a border wall.

The projected cost varies depending on the news source. It’s somewhere around $18 billion.

This doesn’t make sense to me. My dad’s brother was in the CCC. Civilian Conservation Corps. They built parks, roads and many other projects all across the US. One of their most important tasks was building retaining walls to prevent erosion and flood control.

A border fence is not that different. It’s unskilled labor supervised by experienced construction trades people. Laying it out with surveyors. Making sure the foundation is dug properly. I’ve worked construction. It paid the costs for my college education. I’m very aware of the challenges and what’s required. Efficient planning and management is essential.

The military has numerous construction battalions. The Seabees is the best known. But all the military branches have similar groups. Construction is a vital function for the military. They could provide the needed expertise.

Create a education program. The unskilled workers could learn a trade. The project managers and supervisors will very valuable experience in running a big construction job. Skills they can use for the rest of their careers.

This could be a very good way to offer work to the unemployed. The US infrastructure needs a lot of other work. The Wall would be just one of many projects.

The US needs its own construction department that doesn’t depend on bids from private contractors. Much like the State Highway Departments do their own work.

I’m not suggesting a border wall can be built for nothing. But I think we could easily cut the projected costs in half. Some of the area can be more easily protected by electronic fencing. Areas with natural barriers are already inaccessible and can be patrolled. That still leaves a lot of physical fencing.

Isn’t it time to revive the CCC? It transformed my Uncle’s life. He was 17 when he joined the CCC. The checks sent home to my grandfather made all the difference during the Great Depression. It quite literally allowed my grandfather to keep his farm and feed his family.

The model for the CCC worked. Research the documents, structure, and organize it in a similar way. Updating as needed.

How would you approach this project?

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Napkin math this morning says building a wall 1000 miles long, 35 feet high (the minimum according to Trump) and 3 feet wide, allowing no foundation, forms, rebar, delivery, labor…just concrete itself would be $6.1B dollars. Add everything else in, and $15B still seems like a pie in the sky estimate than reality.

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IHMO, I think $15 billion is an underestimate. And no, I don’t think we can roll up our shirt sleeves and get it done for cheaper.

You’re talking about building a wall over vast expanses of territory that include mountains, valleys, and huge stretches where there are no roads to truck in materials. This is logistically a very, very big undertaking.

And I’m not even getting into the legal issues of right-of-way and building on private property.

If I were to build the wall, I’d take the cost estimate and add 25% to it, because it’s perfectly obvious that this is going to be a bigly project.

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First, we’ll need lots and lots of cheap labor…

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But. . . .

:confused:

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It would be cheaper if legislatures made it illegal for employers in the U.S.A. to hire illegal aliens.
Employers (up to and including CEO’s) should be find on an escalating scale per incident. Problem solved. No wall needed.

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What happens if Mexico inspects the wall, finds it lacking in quality and refuses to pay?

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I’m puzzled. Don’t we have a wall already? A fence? Guard dogs? Land mines?

So isn’t the plan to build it higher instead of tearing it down?

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I wonder exactly WHO came up with the numbers.

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Take the largest estimate, double it, double it again and then spread it out over three time the original timeline estimate.

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:smiley:

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I see the border wall as a reason to initiate a government construction program. The CCC should have never been stopped. WWII needed the men and that took priority.

There’s been several documentenries on the crumbling US infrastructure. I can’t see private construction meeting the need at a reasonable cost. By definition, private construction wants to make a profit. They look for ways to cut corners and costs. Then the suppliers look for ways to cut costs.

That’s why states employ their own highway Dept crews.

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You’re off quite a bit. At $90/cubic yard the cost of concrete would be right around 1.8B for those parameters.

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There’s a wall / fence in some places, but much of the border is either open country, or the Rio Grande River.

According to the Wikipedia article, of the 1,954 miles of the border, 580 miles had some sort of barrier by 2009 (I don’t know what the current number is, and the article doesn’t seem to contain it).

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Gov doesn’t even own most of the land and that will take years of court action to acquire, much of it against the owners wishes.

Trump’s got zero chance of buying |Resevation land.

So it’s mostly bullshit. The legal cases re land acquisition will out-last Trump’s presidency.

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Eminent domain can provide a right of way. A fence would only need a strip of land 15 to 20 yards wide. Maybe even less? Thats enough for a security zone.

Isn’t most of the border region desert? It’s not exactly prime real estate.

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A government project that will ten years or more to build that will come in on or under the estimated budget, on land that hasn’t even been negotiated for, let alone bought? What kind of idiot makes deals like this?

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Even if it were $50 billion over eight years, that would be less than 1 percent of defense spending over eight years.

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You keep saying this but you are wrong. State highway departments are not doing the actual road construction/reconstruction. That is contracted out much like most government construction projects. A state highway department may do some patching and minor repairing but large scale road construction/reconstruction is not done by them.

Also, you keep using fence and wall interchangeably. There is already a fence along much of the border. Trump wants an actual wall.

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Let’s hear your opinion when it’s your house being taken. For far below market price.