Tempe company says it can build 700-mile border wall in six years
Feb 12, 2018, 11:07 AM | Updated: 12:31 pm
PHOENIX — A Tempe company submitted a proposal to the federal government that said it could have a border wall built between the United States and Mexico in less than a decade.
“We presented a proactive proposal for them that’s sitting on the Department of Homeland Security’s desk offering to build 700 miles of continuous wall in less than six years,” Thomas Fisher, the president and CEO of Fisher Sand and Gravel, said.
Fisher said crews at different locations could build a total of 400 feet of wall per day within two months of starting work and would only speed up from there.
By the end of the first year, about one mile would be built daily. Two years in, that number would double to two miles per day.
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The proposal would span the border with Mexico in three states: California, Arizona and New Mexico. Fisher said Texas could also be covered relatively quickly, should the federal government expand the contract.
Fisher credited the possible speed of construction to a patent-pending system that would allow workers to make concrete for the wall at the worksite rather than transporting goods to the border.
The proposal may be slightly more likely to catch the eye of President Donald Trump’s administration because it would create thousands of jobs and use American materials.
“Everything we do out there is going to be American-made products with American-made companies,” Fisher said.
The wall — which would be 32 feet tall and more than 2 feet thick — was the only cast-in-place concrete proposal submitted. Fisher said his wall would last 150 years and would be better than other options, most of which would use steel.
“We’re a huge steel company, but I will not put steel on the border in the elements because, in the end, if you’re talking about having border protection, you’ve got to talk, not only in generations, but millenniums,” he said.
“… If you build something that wears out in so long and takes you so long, you’re constantly fixing and not protecting.”
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He said the concrete wall would allow for backfill — which would give Border Patrol agents views over the top of the wall — and provide roads for agents.
Fisher also said his company would be able to build a wall through the mountainous regions of the border because it has its own drilling and blasting operations.
“We can go right through the mountains and we can still make it look good and actually build the roadway,” he said. “Most of the competition, because they’re not vertically integrated like this, have no idea what they’re doing.”
KTAR News’ Ali Vetnar contributed to this report.
