President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Wednesday advancing the construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border. The cost of that wall could be north of $15 billion, according to a Wall Street firm.
Bernstein analysts estimated the cost of building a wall along the U.S. southern border during the 2016 campaign, finding that the total cost of the structure could be between $15 and $25 billion. During their estimating process, the analysts used the following assumptions, according to Business Insider:
The analysts predicted the wall would be 40 feet tall and 1,000 miles long, go 7 feet underground (to prevent tunneling), and be 10 inches thick. The simplest construction material to use would be concrete, according to the analysts–and based on concrete prices and the estimated size of the wall, that cost alone would be around $700 million.
Bernstein was not alone in attempting to envision the president's much-discussed wall proposal. A Mexican architect firm took on the task as well.
"Mexican architects from Estudio 3.14, a design firm based in Guadalajara, imagined a hot pink border that stretches 1,954 miles, called the "Prison-Wall," Business Insider reported.
The architects at Estudio 3.14 used slightly different estimates to create their findings of the wall. They concluded that due to various physical complications such as climate and mountainous terrain, the construction could take up to 16 years.