By Miguel Gonzalez
Sports Editor
After 30 days, six contractors finished the construction of eight different prototype walls in San Diego for President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall on Thursday, Oct. 26, according to The Atlantic.
The prototype wall project is part of President Trump’s $1.6 billion plan to replace 14 miles of wall in San Diego and build 60 miles in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, according to the Los Angeles Times.
On Oct. 17, President Trump tweeted a video about the construction of the prototypes.
“BORDER WALL prototypes underway!” President Trump tweeted.
The prototype walls, ranging between 18 and 30 feet high, are divided between four concrete walls and four non-concrete walls, The Atlantic reported. Two of the eight prototype walls have a transparent design, according to Reuters.
Each wall model costed $500,000 and was built to withstand damage from tools such as sledgehammers, pickaxes and torches, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“Border walls have proven to be an extremely effective part of our multi-pronged security strategy to prevent the illegal migration of people and drugs over the years,” said Ron Vitiello, the acting deputy commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in the federal agency’s press release. “These border enforcement zones give our men and women of CBP the best possible conditions to maintain a safe and secure border."
The six contractors who built the walls were Caddell Construction Co., LLC, Fisher Sand & Gravel Co., Texas Sterling Construction Co., W. G. Yates & Sons Construction Company, KWR Construction, Inc. and ELTA North America Inc., according to a press release from CBP.
After Saturday, Oct. 28, CBP will begin to test the durability of the eight walls, according to NBC. The CBP will test the walls for their anti-breaching and anti-digging capabilities along with their safety for border patrol agents, according to a press release from CBP.
“We're going to test it for breachability. For the subterranean aspect. Can we dig under it? Can we cut through it? Can we scale over it?” said Roy Villareal, the deputy chief patrol agent of the San Diego sector of CBP, according to NBC.
President’s Trump proposed wall will feature a multi-faceted barrier that has a concrete wall facing the U.S. and a non-concrete wall facing Mexico that would allow border patrol to see through it, according to NBC. The 150-foot gap between the two walls will be used for a monitoring zone.
“The thing I am most impressed by is the scale,” Vitiello told Fox News. “A lot of things have to happen now - testing, evaluation, estimates, appropriation. We will do it all as quickly and safely as we can to give as much security to the homelands as we can.”
As of Oct. 22, the 1,954-mile U.S.-Mexico border has 654 miles of single-layer fence and 51 miles of double- and triple-layer fence, according to the Los Angeles Times.
