US-Mexico border wall prototypes take shape

UNITED STATES: Nine months after President Donald Trump took office, the first tangible signs of progress on one of his central promises have appeared along the US border with Mexico.

A couple of kilometres from the bustling Otay Mesa border crossing in San Diego, eight towering chunks of concrete and steel stand as much as nine metres tall against the sky, possible models for what Trump has promised will one day be a solid wall extending the length of the border, from California to Texas.

Whether any of the eight different prototypes, constructed over the last month, become part of an actual wall remains highly uncertain.

Congress has so far shown little interest in appropriating the estimated $21.6 billion it would cost to build the wall.

Still, border patrol officials yesterday welcomed the momentum on Trump’s pledge, which generated a groundswell of voter support that helped elect him.

‘‘Our current infrastructure is well over two decades old,’’ Roy Villareal, deputy chief patrol agent of the US Border Patrol’s San Diego sector, said. ‘‘Is there need for improvement? Absolutely.’’

Currently, 1052 km of the 3058km border with Mexico is fenced, with single, double or triple fences. The second line of fencing in San Diego, about six metres tall, has been breached nearly 2000 times in the last three years, Villareal said.

Even if Trump’s wall never gets funded, Villareal said, the border patrol might incorporate one or more of the new wall designs as it replaces worn sections of the existing fence.

Six contractors were selected to build the eight prototypes, all of which will be completed this week. –