Posted on 01/10/2018 4:36:23 AM PST by UKrepublican
During a meeting at the White House on immigration, President Trump told Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen never to “mention seven years again” in reference to the timeframe that DHS claimed it would take to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. “I can build it for less,” Trump said in regard to the recent DHS report which stated that it would cost them $18 billion to build the border wall. “I must tell you, I’m looking at these prices and somebody said $42 billion,” Trump said. “This is like the aircraft carrier. It started off at a billion and a half and its now at $18 billion. No, we can do it for less.” The DHS report, released by Nielsen, also noted that it would take 7 to 10 years for the border wall along the southern border to be constructed and finished, an estimate that Trump said he never wanted to hear mentioned again. “We can do a great job. We can do a great wall, but you need the wall and I’m now getting involved. I like to build under budget, okay. I like to go under budget, ahead of schedule.”
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
More from the article:
“There’s no reason for 7 years, also.” Trump said as he looked and motioned at Nielsen. “I heard the other day, please don’t do that to me. Seven years to build a wall?! We can build the wall in one year.”
“Yes sir,” Nielsen responded.
“And we can build it for less much money than what they’re talking about,” Trump said as he leaned in to tell Nielsen.
“There is no reason to ever mention 7 years again, please,” Trump told Nielsen.
A 1-year wall sounds really scaled down to me though.
This.
Here.
“and I’m now getting involved.”
Ahh...but isn’t it Trump who’s requesting only $1.8 billion PER ONE YEAR? WTF!!
So just demand an $18billion authorization and build it as well and as quickly as possible. You can’t have it both ways and allow yourself to be played by the ‘RATS.
These contractors will sub to the losers to make it happen.
That's the Art of the Deal...
Everyone wins...
Starting with $1.8 billion and getting it done....may change the total...so we need a "done portion" to figure out the balance due.
“A 1-year wall sounds really scaled down to me though.”
What has Trump ever built that was scaled “down”?
Read, “The Art Of The Deal.” It’s Trump’s voics and thinking. Story after story. Look for the ice rink story.
After watching NY union and city guys flounder for years, he said, let me do it. I’ll do it and pay for it. Just get out of the way.
They said ok smartass, go for it.
He found the world’s best ice rink experts, brought them in to do it. The Canadians. Done in less than a year.
He’ll bring in the best, sign eo’s getting rid of enviro rules.
He’ll do it. It’s what he does.
Trump knows what he is talking about. He has been in real estate development for DECADES.
I can be done in a year and be a quality one. Back in World War II, the Pentagon was built in about 16 months.
The prototypes have been completed, and their designs lend themselves to mass production and rapid installation. Contractors doing the on-site foundation prep while the sections are manufactured and then shipped in and installed.
Of course, we need to start out by bringing out the EPA employees who are conducting the environmental impact statement field work, and the environmental activist to site, execute them and bury them under the foundations! Okay, maybe that is a little extreme.
And so it goes. We project as a preliminary baseline that wall construction completion will be signed off in 2053, at which point we will need to develop a commissioning plan to commission the wall.
The nation cannot afford this wall - not the way we know how to do things here in the swamp.
The time required for completion is a function of resources applied. If a crew can produce 20 miles per year, then 100 crews working simultaneously can get the job done in a year.
The engineering design must be completed first to define the location and the type of ground the contractor will encounter. There will also be access roads to be designed within an overall security plan.
The civil engineering design work is going to take a while and is not nearly as cut and dried as the actual construction
In my mind the border to border physical wall 30+ feet high is delusion. The actual construction will be restricted to high population known illegal entry locations.
IF Trump calls for VOLUNTEERS to ssist in construction, it will be built very quickly.
I contend that IF you provide volunteers with places to park their RV’s & trailers, they will show up in numbers that will astound. Volunteers to feed them-—Feds provide the groceries. Shower trailers & laundry trailers. There are plenty of inventive ways this wall could be built very quickly....Give every VOLUNTEER a medal for their work.
As for cost?
Apple says it has $252 BILLION offshore. They have said they will partake in Trump’s ONE TIME offer to bring that $$$$ back to the USA with a 15.5% tax. That rate of tax on $252 BILLION is $39,060,000,000. OVER $39 BILLION. That is far more than estimates to build the wall.
Other companies are also participating in that one time tax offer.
WE DO HAVE THE $$$$$$$$.
In my mind the border to border physical wall 30+ feet high is delusion. The actual construction will be restricted to high population known illegal entry locations.”””
The higher the wall, the better. IF you only put the wall in high traffic areas, you will push that traffic into other areas. Like squeezing a balloon. Ranchers are already under siege from the illegals.
What is interesting about that is both areas are arid desert. Both are mostly open areas and a relatively small section of very rugged terrain. The total length of our bid was just shy of 1700 miles, whereas for US-Mexico along CA, AZ, NM it is only about 700 miles - figuring the Rio Grande is a barrier along TX. In the middle east, there was nothing, *nothing* there - getting construction equipment, material, and personnel on site was going to be a logistics challenge, as well as setting up rapid response forces to back up the physical barrier in remote areas.
If we could realistically plan to do that much, in those conditions, for that price, then the US-Mexico wall should be a snap. Far shorter, far less challenging logistically. If/when the gov. puts it out for contract, we'll probably bid on it, and I'll probably volunteer for that one too.
Oh, one other thing - our timeline for getting all that done was just under 3 years. 1700 miles in 3, not 700 in 7.
It could take 7 years to award the contract(s). The wheels turn slowly in the fedgov.
Here’s the thing. Everything you say is correct. But, this has already been done. Building the border wall on the southern border has been in the books for 20 years. This is nothing new. Surveying has already been completed, as is access points.
The biggest questions now are how long will it take for the pre-fab plants to be fully operational and who will the prime contractors be and how large will be their resource pool.
A couple of other points to review would be how long will it take the concrete to cure before it can be shipped and does all of this include the other barriers that will be put in place to support the border? (ie: concertina wire, roads, technology)
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