Eight prototypes for President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall were erected at a construction site in San Diego after the last two of them came into profile on Thursday and crews installed a corrugated metal surface in the eighth model on a dirt lot just a few steps from homes in Tijuana, Mexico. The Associated Press reports the deadline for the companies to finish the models is October, 26.
Three men and two women from Nepal jumped a fence from Tijuana into the construction site while the crews were working, but the agents stopped them. According to Border Patrol spokesman Theron Francisco, since the beginning of the work, there were four or five illegal crossing attempts.
The government spent up to 500,000 dollars for each of the prototypes, that were placed 30 feet apart. According to the guidelines, they should stand between 18 and 30 feet high and be able to withstand at least an hour of punishment from tools and should prevent the use of climbing aids. They are also supposed to be aesthetically pleasing when viewed from the American side.
“I’m sure they will engage in a lot of tests against these structures to see how they function with different challenges,” U.S. Representative Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said.
Currently, there is single-layer fence along 654 miles, or 1,052 kilometers, of the border. Double and triple-layer fence is present along 51 miles, or 82 km, of the 1,954 mile (3,143 km) border.
Trump wants to replace 14 miles (22,4km) of wall and to build a 60 miles (96 km) in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, the busiest corridor for illegal crossings. For that purpose, he asked 1.6 billion dollars from the Congress.
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