Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Crews tear down prototypes of Trump’s walls along border
SAN DIEGO — The government is demolishing eight prototypes of Donald Trump’s prized border wall that instantly became powerful symbols of his presidency when they were built nine months after he took office.
The Trump administration says elements of the prototypes have been melded into current border fence designs and they have served their purpose.
The four concrete and four steel panels, spaced closely together steps from an existing barrier separating San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, were one of Trump’s top priorities, and he visited the location a year ago to see the installations.
For Trump’s allies, the towering models were a show of his commitment to border security and fulfilling a core campaign promise. For detractors, they were monuments to wasted taxpayer dollars and a misguided display of aggression toward Mexico and immigrants seeking a new home in the United States.
Less than two hours after crews began Wednesday, seven of the barriers were destroyed. A large hydraulic jackhammer attached to an excavator pounded the walls repeatedly as slabs fell into small clouds of dust. A panel made of steel poles was also dismantled.
Their removal makes way to extend a second layer of barrier with steel bollards, similar to slats, topped by a metal plate rising 30 feet from the ground, the same design being used elsewhere on the border.
The nearly $3 billion that Congress has provided for barriers during the first half of Trump’s term requires that money be spent on designs that were in place before May 2017, effectively prohibiting the prototypes from being used and denying Trump bragging rights to say he built his wall. It’s unclear if the restriction would apply to the billions of dollars that Trump wants to spend by declaring a national emergency on the nation’s southern border.
The eight prototypes cost $300,000 to $500,000 each to build.
The government tested the designs and, according to a summary from the Government Accountability Office, found that the concrete walls posed “extensive” construction challenges and the others posed “substantial” or “moderate” challenges. Six of the eight would require extensive changes to accommodate drainage.
Border Patrol spokesman Ross Wilkin said testing also exposed several design flaws.
The appeal to private industry for ideas provided many lessons to guide construction, he said. That includes learning that certain materials were unsuitable for quick repairs and that combining different surfaces, like bollards topped by plates, were more effective.
The new barrier replaces a steel-mesh fence that runs more than 12 miles from the Pacific Ocean, which worked like a fortress when it was built a decade ago but is now regularly breached with powerful battery-operated saws recently made available in home improvement stores. It will then extend another mile or so over the prototype site.
SLSCO Ltd. of Galveston, Texas, won the $101 million contract in December and started work last week.