Trump says he's pushing for steel barrier instead of concrete wall amid standoff with Dems

[Elderberry]

Electrified steel would work.  And they can have the slats come to a sharp stake at the top.

To electrify a steel fence, all of the electrified portion would have to be insulated from the ground. If they just ran a string of insulated wires that were electrified, those could be easily cut.

[DCPatriot]

To electrify a steel fence, all of the electrified portion would have to be insulated from the ground. If they just ran a string of insulated wires that were electrified, those could be easily cut.

Jesus H. Christ!  Did you have to tell everyone?
😊

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

To electrify a steel fence, all of the electrified portion would have to be insulated from the ground. If they just ran a string of insulated wires that were electrified, those could be easily cut.

You put insulators between the steel sections, about 14' high and only electrify the upper section(s).  And make sure there's a good toe hold at about 8'.

[Elderberry]

You put insulators between the steel sections, about 14' high and only electrify the upper section(s).  And make sure there's a good toe hold at about 8'.

What's the "good toe hold" for?  So they can easily stand in these toe holds as they use jumper cables to short out the upper sections to the lower grounded ones?

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

What's the "good toe hold" for?  So they can easily stand in these toe holds as they use jumper cables to short out the upper sections to the lower grounded ones?

To make sure the fall is just high enough for a good whack on the butt, but not high enough to do real damage.  Also, to make them feel cocky just beforehand.

[sneakypete]

Best to just use concrete and never have to worry about stuff like that. They can even pour it in place with a slight curve at the top that leans towards Mexico to make climbing it even harder.

[libertybele]

@libertybele

You have it backwards. Steel is put into concrete forms before the pour is made to reinforce the concrete.

As for it being new and rusty,don't let that bother you. So is the steel used in bridges and ship-building. The rust can be treated.

   Thank you for the information.  Quite frankly, Steel or concrete would be just fine with me.  Just get the darn thing built!

[DCPatriot]

[Elderberry]

Is a steel wall going to be cheaper than a concrete one?  And whose steel? American, or Chinese?

I found this article on the price breakdown for a concrete wall. I haven't found one yet for a steel wall.

Trump's border wall -- how much it will actually cost according to a statistician

Fox News 12/11/2018
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/trumps-border-wall-how-much-it-will-actually-cost-according-to-a-statistician

Construction

Size of the wall: 1,150 miles long; 40 feet high; 10 feet deep into the ground; 1 foot wide

Total volume of material: 11.2 million cubic yards

Materials: Approximately $8.7 billion in concrete (97 percent of the materials); approximately $3.6 billion in steel (3 percent of the materials)

Labor: Approximately $12.3 billion (given the labor costs on the original 654 miles of barriers we can assume a conservative 1:1 ratio of materials to labor)

Land acquisition: About 60 percent of the border is privately owned land. While the federal government has the power to take privately owned property for public purposes, it must provide “just compensation.” Based on previous purchases from the 2006-2009 wall construction, the cost at most would be $300,000 per mile acquired, or approximately $200 million altogether.

In total, the actual physical cost of the wall would be about $25 billion. That sounds like a ton of money. But it isn’t just one person paying for it – the entirety of the U.S. taxpayer base would collectively foot the bill.

To put that in perspective, we could give 50,000 small businesses $500,000 each to get their businesses up and running. That would be pretty incredible. On the other hand, we spend a lot of money on some absolutely ridiculous things. The taxpayer-funded National Science Foundation gave almost $200,000 to a researcher to study the gambling habits of monkeys. What was the result? Nonsensical animal testing and suffering so we could find out that monkeys like to gamble. Come on.

I could easily come up with $25 billion dollars in our federal budget that are wasted each year. No problem.

[berdie]

  Perfect!!

[sneakypete]

Is a steel wall going to be cheaper than a concrete one?  And whose steel? American, or Chinese?

I found this article on the price breakdown for a concrete wall. I haven't found one yet for a steel wall.

@Elderberry

There is more to consider than construction costs. Steel requires  a lot more maintenance work than concrete,which is virtually "pour and forget" unless there is an earthquake or a bombing.