The prototypes for President Trump’s border wall were demolished on Wednesday, making way for the construction of a new, secondary barrier that resembles some of the prototypes themselves.
The new barrier will be constructed of “steel poles topped by a metal plate rising 30 feet (9.1 meters) from the ground, the same design being used elsewhere on the border,” according to The Associated Press. “The new barrier vaguely resembles some of the steel prototypes but looks nothing like the solid concrete panels, which were widely panned because border agents couldn’t see what was happening on the other side.”
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) said that the demolition of the four steel and four concrete panels near the border separating San Diego from Tijuana, Mexico, has “always been the plan.”
“They just don’t serve a purpose anymore,” a CBP spokesman told The San Diego Union-Tribune days prior to the demolition.
The prototypes cost $300,000 to $500,000 each to build, varying in shape, material, and size. Now that they have been removed, a new, secondary barrier in the San Diego sector can be built.
As the San Diego Union-Tribune reported over the weekend, construction has already begun:
Construction crews have already replaced most of one layer of fencing along 14 miles of the San Diego-Tijuana border and started work on the secondary fence this week.
The stretch of old secondary barrier being replaced is a little over a mile shorter than the primary fence. The replacement secondary barrier will run the full length of the primary one.
The eight prototypes, which Trump visited about a year ago, stand between the end of the old secondary fence and where construction crews have put up the first panels of 30-foot tall bollards — concrete-filled steel posts placed close together — where the additional mile or so of barrier will go.