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An Anonymous Coward writes:
BusinessInsider reports on some creative solutions that have been submitted for "The Trump Wall"
Main link:
http://www.businessinsider.com/design-trumps-border-wall-hyperloop-2017-4
Homeland Security has put out a request for proposal and some of the submissions are truly creative. This article focuses on a joint Mexican-US proposal to convert land along the border to a neutral zone and build a Hyperloop along the border.
The Trump administration is reviewing design bids for its proposed wall along the US-Mexico border. But not all plans are interpreting the word "wall" literally.
A group of Mexican and American engineers and urban planners called MADE Collective want to build a $1 trillion hyperloop transportation network instead. The plan would turn the border into a shared nation, called Otra Nation, with an independent local government and nonvoting representatives in the US and Mexican legislatures.
...
The plan would cost approximately $15 billion — less than the $21 billion that the Department of Homeland Security estimated a border wall would cost. The designers also predict that their system would create $1 trillion in trade.
...
The group submitted its design to the US Customs and Border Protection's official call for proposals in March.
While this certainly wasn't what your AC was expecting, it appears to be a completely serious proposal from experienced builders and planners -- http://www.otranation.com/proposal
Other proposals submitted include:
MADE Collective is not the only one to submit a fantastical design for the border wall. Other proposals include a wall covered in solar panels, a binational park, and an "Inflatoborder" made of plastic bubbles.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by NotSanguine on Monday April 17 2017, @04:07AM (5 children)
First it says:
Then it says:
So which is it? US $1 triilion or US $15 billion?
Don't tell me I actually have to read TFA to find out. What? Are you Nancy Pelosi?
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Monday April 17 2017, @04:35AM
Okay, According to the actual proposal [otranation.com], it's US$1 trillion over ten years.
I have no idea where the US $15 billion number comes from, but it's there without explanation in TFA. Sigh.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 17 2017, @04:42AM (3 children)
... So which is it? US $1 triilion or US $15 billion?
Both:
+ $15B to build
+ Improved transportation along the border between existing twinned cities will increase the economy by $1T. These cities include "Tijuana-San Diego / Mexicali-Caléxico / San Luis - Yuma / Nogales-Nogales / Naco-Naco / Agua Prieta- Douglas/ Puerto Palomas-Columbus / Juárez-El Paso / Ojinaga-Presidio / Cd. Acuña-Del Río / Piedras Negras-Eagle Pass / Nuevo Laredo-Laredo / Reynosa-McAllen / Cd. Rio Bravo-Weslaco / Matamoros Brownsville"
The magazine article incorrectly quotes the proposal, from: http://www.otranation.com/proposal [otranation.com]
· Economic Issues
More than 80 million people in four U.S. and six Mexico States, extending nearly 2,000 miles from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean, comprising the border region. Its combined annual GDP is approximately $3.8 trillion and the bulk of U.S.-Mexico trade passes through its many land crossings. The border region is and has been a source of commerce, tourism, and student-exchange which has proven vital to both countries. The region harbor intense binational integration and cooperation including issues of shared importance, such as transportation infrastructure and the environment. Key law enforcement efforts to counter transnational crime occur in the border region.
According to the former president George W. Bush White House Archives, the almost 2,000 miles U.S.-Mexico border is the busiest in the world.
Since the implementation of NAFTA twenty-one years ago, trade between the United States and Mexico has grown sixfold. It now totals more than a half-trillion dollars each year, with approximately 80% of that, more than a billion dollars each day, crossing at the U.S.-Mexico land border. More than six million U.S. jobs—and probably an even greater number of the U.S.-Mexico border jobs— now depend on bilateral trade.
...
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday April 17 2017, @04:54AM (1 child)
Instant drug route? ;)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 17 2017, @01:49PM
Well, as an AC up there notes, hyperloop might be good for freight, so let's hope the drug routes of the future include bringing fresh herb up from warmer climates over hyperloop, then have an intermodal yard to hand it off to a container driver who can use I-35 as a drug route.
Note: My plan includes legalizing cannabis and will result in the profits of big pharma, big alcohol, big tobacco, and most unacceptable of all big prison crashing, so it'll never happen.
(Score: 3, Informative) by NotSanguine on Monday April 17 2017, @04:55AM
I read through the proposal and saw this:
I saw no mention of $15 billion. Perhaps you can direct me to what I missed.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr