US company makes Trump $3.3B border offer: Quick turnaround on 218 miles of steel fence, roads, and tech
A U.S. construction company is making a formal, unsolicited offer to Trump administration officials in Washington this week to build 218 miles of wall along the U.S.-Mexico border for $3.3 billion and have the entire job completed in 13 months.
Arizona-based Fisher Industries President Tommy Fisher is meeting this week with top Department of Homeland Security officials, along with Democrats and Republicans in Congress, to sell his plan, the Washington Examiner has learned.
“DHS needs a contractor to build the border fence as fast as possible, without compromising the quality of the fence. The ideal contractor would build the border fence faster, of higher quality, and at less cost than any other contractor. Fisher Sand & Gravel Co. is that contractor,” Fisher Industries officials wrote in an official paper version of the proposal.
Tommy Fisher said it can build 218 miles of 18-foot steel bollard fence, along with paved concrete roads, lighting, and technology for $3.285 billion, a fraction of the $5.7 billion President Trump requested from Congress in December for a 234-mile project.
The fence's steel is all made in-house and would be weathered to avoid rusting and the need for replacement for 75 years, Fisher said. The top of the fence would have spin cameras mounted to it with systems that use facial recognition technology.
The barrier would go up in four regions: 42 miles near Yuma, Ariz.; 69 miles near El Paso, Texas; 15 miles near El Centro, Calif.; and 91 miles near Tucson, Ariz.
Each mile would cost $12.5 million. Mobilization or start-up costs are estimated around $200 million and a $360 million five-year warranty is included in the total proposed cost. Fisher said all parts and labor would be American.
The project comes in $2 billion less than budgeted, Fisher said, because he has handled all of the procurement costs himself and came up with a new and cheaper way to build. A patent is pending on the fence installation process, which is not done the same as other wall projects because of a different type of excavator Caterpillar will make specifically for this project.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/us-company-makes-trump-3-3b-border-offer-quick-turnaround-on-218-miles-of-steel-fence-roads-and-tech