Donald Trump’s Great Wall of Mexico has officially been spotted in its early stages.
Individual sections of the the eight proposed wall designs for the President’s controversial U.S-Mexican border protection initiative have already been erected ahead of testing in the coming months. The prototype walls all span 9.1 metres in height and have been built at the existing border fence site just south of San Diego.
The rigorous testing process which is due to begin next month includes subjecting the walls to sledgehammers, pickaxes, power tools and other high impact instruments. The team responsible for testing the integrity of the wall will also attempt to dig under and scale over the different designs to test each one’s effectiveness.
Roy Villareal who is a US Customs and Borders Protection chief agent told the Evening Standard that, “we’re going to test them for breachability, for the subterranean aspect”.
Two hundred and fifty applications were culled down to six companies by the Department of Homeland Security in a tendering process which began in February this year – a month after President Trump had been inaugurated.
The leading designs thus far include heavy duty concrete walls which feature thicker lower portions and transparent lower halves, and another type with a metal and concrete combination.
The most imposing design however comes from Texas Sterling Construction who have a wall topped with steel mesh and spikes. Whilst the final product will be determined by price, there’s been ongoing debate over who will foot the final bill with the refusal from the Mexican government and a $1.6B pledge to the wall’s construction failing in the American Senate.
Trump, being the environmentalist that he is, touched on a rather ingenious design himself when he proposed a wall that incorporated solar panels to help foot the massive price tag.