Border walls prototypes to undergo rigorous testing

The federal government announced Oct. 26 that eight prototypes which are part of President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall project located on San Diego’s borderlands have been fully completed and will be subject to a series of tests involving sledgehammers, torches, pickaxes, and other battery-operated tools.

Testing is planned to begin in at least a month as to give the concrete time to cure. The process will then last from 30 days to 60. It aims to identify elements that could be merged in order to create the most effective wall that would separate the country from Mexico.

According to Ronald Vitello, acting deputy commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that the testing period will answer the following questions: “Can it be climbed? Can it be dug under? Can it withstand cutting tools?”

“We don’t have details at this point, but we are expected to put those designs through the same uses and techniques that organizations that smuggle people into the U.S. normally use,” CBP Southwest Branch Chief Carlos Diaz also told USA Today.

The Hill, however, pointed out that even after the testing period, construction of Trump’s actual wall is still far off. The project has yet to be awarded a budget by the congress and it still has to deal with multiple lawsuits filed to block building.

Despite the delays and confusion among bidders regarding the process, the CPB claimed that construction of the prototypes finished on schedule.

Last summer, the government awarded six companies budgets that range from $300,000 to $500,000 to create the prototypes. The eight models stand approximately 30 ft. apart from each other, near an existing fence made out of old steel airstrip landing mats. The contractors were given a month to finish their walls.