Thread: Report: Border Wall Prototypes Breached, Broken During Tests

Report: Border Wall Prototypes Breached, Broken During Tests

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File Photo: Joel Pollak / Breitbart News18 Sep 20184Initial tests of President Donald Trump’s border wall prototypes show the structures fail to meet the “non penetrable” criteria, according to a government report. Study crews were able to breach a wall and in at least one case, make a prototype unstable.

A recently released report from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) revealed the proposed border barriers could fail based on current prototypes, KPBS Fronteras reporter Jean Guerrero noted. The government report addressed testing of the $20 million Otay Mesa barrier prototype project.


While the report contained heavy redactions to protect testing methodologies, it revealed that in at least one case, the testing resulted in making one of the mock-ups unstable to the point that officials feared a collapse, Guerrero reported.


“The (redacted) breaching technique was rescheduled to be last breaching technique on each mock-up, since the technique had the potential to impact the structural integrity of the entire mock-up,” the report stated.


Testers utilized mock-ups of the actual prototype barriers. After the failure of the first mock-up, the undisclosed technique used in the test was delayed on the other mock-ups until the final step of the testing process.

“It wasn’t intended on their part, but when they ran this test, they must have realized it was causing some kind of major damage to the mock-ups,” Robert K. Dowell, associate professor of structural engineering at San Diego State University’s Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering told KPBS during an interview about the mock-up’s failure. “And they put it at the end because of that. They thought it was going to collapse.”


CBP spokesman Ralph DeSio told Guerrero that the prototypes “were not and cannot be designed to be indestructible.” Instead, he explained, they are designed to “impede or deny efforts to scale, breach, or dig under such a barrier, giving agents time to respond.”


The report does not address how the barriers would perform against tunneling. Anti-tunneling technology is one of the requirements of the project, the article stated. The report also revealed the prototypes failed to show that they could be “easily modified” to respond to changing landscapes and terrains.


Perhaps most notably, Guerrero’s research could not discern the effectiveness of the prototypes against scaling.


“The prototypes were tested for how well they resisted climbing.” the KPBS reporter wrote. “That section of the report was too redacted to draw conclusions.”


The article addresses several key questions about the testing and effectiveness of the prototypes:

• Q: Can The Barriers Be Breached? A: They Can Be Broken.
• Q: Can The Barriers Be Tunneled Under? A: Unknown.
• Q: Can The Barriers Be Scaled? A: Some Can.
• Q: Are The Barriers Adaptable? A: Not Entirely.
• Q: Are The Barriers Attractive? A: Yes, To Some.

A report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released during the summer cautioned the wall project could be costlier than expected because CBP estimates failed to account for “costs associated with deploying the barrier in each location or segment,” Guerrero stated. The report states those costs could vary because of the topography, land ownership, and other factors unaccounted for.


Guerrero reported the mock-ups utilized for breaching tests consisted only of the lower 10-feet of each prototype. Scaling tests were performed on the actual 30-foot prototypes.


Professor Dowell told the reporter that it was strange the testing would be done on the shorter mock-ups. He explained that the taller the wall, the more likely it is to fail.


“The results at the base, what we call the bending moment and overturning moment at the bottom or footing, would be different… unless they accounted for that by applying different loads,” he explained.


Testing of the prototypes and mock-ups were carried out beyond the view of outsiders to prevent human smugglers from obtaining intelligence information about how to best counter the barriers. CBP reports indicate the older fencing technology is, the more likely breaches are to occur, Guerrero reported. During the past five years, existing fencing was breached by smugglers more than 9,000 times. The cost of repairs to existing barriers exceeded $1 billion over the past two decades — at least some of that cost derived from breaches.

https://www.breitbart.com/texas/2018/09/18/report-border-wall-prototypes-breached-broken-during-tests/

They'll need to customize the wall or fence, depending on which and what is best at which location, based on each area where the barrier will be installed. What works in one location won't work or work as well in another. While they work on the engineering and design of the walls (best is to turn it all over to Army Corps of Engineers in my opinion, because they have decades of experience with this type of construction from all their dam and levee work over the years).

In the meantime, implement Judy's Plan B and use economic sanctions against these countries and their citizens responsible for this scourge of illegal immigration into the United States. Do it soon. It will work and work fast, plus it doesn't cost the US anything. We actually make money from them, grow our own GDP and create hundreds of thousands maybe even millions of new jobs for American Workers while stopping illegal immigration at the same time.

Implement Judy's Plan B.

Keep Trump Train Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'.

VOTE REPUBLICAN IN 2018!!!

Put spikes on both sides of it!

Big roller on top, grease it up, roll in one-way back to Mexico.

Judy wrote (excerpt):

In the meantime, implement Judy's Plan B and use economic sanctions against these countries and their citizens responsible for this scourge of illegal immigration into the United States. Do it soon. It will work and work fast, plus it doesn't cost the US anything.

Save your breath because it's not going to happen. Your plan is not workable and would never be a consideration. You've been given a handful of reasons it won't work, but you continue to ignore sound logic and reasoning.

HOW STUPID! Any wall can be breached. But how many illegal aliens come with a bulldozer or enough explosives to breach the walls?

THIS IT JUST ANOTHER EXCUSE TO DELAY THE CONSTRUCTION.

Along freeway dividers is often a concrete wall. These are generally sections with a steel cable lashing them together. Same thing with a chain-link fence, the sections are attached to each other. A single section cannot stop a penetration, but several sections "holding hands" creates a formidable barrier that can stop a truck.

Originally Posted by jtdc

HOW STUPID! Any wall can be breached. But how many illegal aliens come with a bulldozer or enough explosives to breach the walls?

THIS IT JUST ANOTHER EXCUSE TO DELAY THE CONSTRUCTION.

Just another method to delay and obstruct.

• Q: Are The Barriers Attractive?
• ​

Silly question when a country is being invaded.

I suppose they think armed invaders carrying bundles of drugs is more attractive.