42 million/3 miles is 14 million per mile
1500 miles at 14 million is 21 Billion. Rather have the bollard walls and concrete add the rest later.
Lets get a barrier up then add the bells and whistles
“Lets get a barrier up then add the bells and whistles”
An obstacle that is not under observation, is vulnerable to counter-obstacle tactics. That is a basic doctrine among the Army’s combat engineers.
If no one is watching the barrier on a dark night, it takes just a few minutes to set up a ladder and drop a rope down the other side. With ladders and ropes, people climb Mount Everest. Or they could take a few hours to deliberately saw through, or a few days to tunnel under.
You have to be able to detect and respond, to have an effective barrier. That is why they install it as a package of “wall system” - that is what works. They have been playing catch the jumper every night for decades, and have tested and refined their requirements.
“42 million/3 miles is 14 million per mile”
Prices vary from $4 million per mile in the flat desert around the Santa Teresa Port of Entry in New Mexico, to close to $25 million per mile for FEMA hurricane-rated flood control levee barrier in the lower Rio Grande Valley.
The total plan envisions building about 1,100 miles of barrier. But it is in priority order - the first few hundred miles will make a much bigger impact than the last few hundred, and they are the places that need the strongest and best defenses (e.g. all the big border cities and the Rio Grande Valley, where more than half of the total flow flood across each day).