A wall full of fiber optics? Anti-climbing coating? Solar panels? Trump's wall may become the most high-tech barrier in history if builders get their way.

The deadline for proposals to build Trump's big wall between Mexico and the United States came and went on Tuesday, and while the government will wait until June 1 to announce which companies made the first cut to make models of their proposals, several of those companies have released their plans to the public.

Specifications for the wall include that it must be able to repel pickaxes and sledgehammers for at least an hour, and be "aesthetically pleasing" on the north side that would face the United States. Builders must show that they have experience "executing high-profile, high-visibility, and politically contentious" projects. Preventing tunnels must be taken into account, too. U.S officials have told the Associated Press that they expect to choose four to 10 bidders that would build prototypes for $200,000 to $500,000 each.

"For the younger generation, they say if there is going to be a wall, let's have it be green," says Thomas Gleason, whose company, Gleason Partners, has submitted a proposal with solar panels. Numerous proposals take the aesthetics of the wall seriously, from Gleason's solars panels or Concrete Contractors Interstate's plan to build a "polished concrete wall augmented with stones and artifacts" specifically tailored for each region of the wall.

"The idea is to make the wall a piece of art," said Russ Baumgartner, chief executive officer of the San Diego-based company, to the AP. It's a sentiment shared by iCON Wall, which would feature recycled glass on both sides of the wall, going beyond the government's requirements. WTC Construction of St. Andrews, Texas, would want a precast concrete system that would look like its desert surroundings. The "Rammed Earth" model, as WTC calls it, would "provide a beautiful structure that will reflect the beauty of the border lands."

The "Rammed Earth" wall proposal.

While such appeals hope to garner the interest of a president who has put a premium on aesthetics, not all proposals share such a concern. One that has been garnering hype on Fox News, the President's preferred method of getting information, is the "Smart Wall" from Scottsdale, Arizona's DarkPulse Technologies. It'd be stuffed full of fiber optics capable of detecting any physical tampering, as well as anti-climb coating.

The DarkPulse proposal for the wall. DarkPulse

Another proposal, from Clayton Industries of Pittsburgh, has one crazy idea bound to keep people away from the wall: fill it with nuclear waste. Using trenches at least 100 feet deep to store the waste, Clayton would also draw funds from the Department of Energy to further fund the wall. The company would also build a railroad along the wall as a further disincentive to try to cross it. Proposals adding elements like this to wall reflect the reality that it will likely generate no economic benefits on its own.

Clayton Industries' proposal, with nuclear waste storage a railroad track. Clayton Industries

Whichever proposal is met with final approval is bound to be met with an extreme pushback and headaches befitting a project unique in American history. There's the cost of the wall, estimated by the Department of Homeland Security to cost $21.6 billion (President Trump has maintained that Mexico will pay for a wall, a position roundly refuted by the Mexican government). Given the lack of unity within the President's own party, there is little guarantee that such funding would actually materialize.

Then there's the hot, dry climate of the American Southwest, which would screw up the chemical reactions within concrete that causes the material to harden. The wall will most likely use over three times the amount of concrete than the Hoover Dam, and the massive building project could create boomtowns along its construction, with a massive amount of supplies needed to house, feed, bathe, and entertain its workers.

Some have taken the submission process as a chance to protest the wall itself. The group Otra Nation has submitted a plan with no wall at all, but rather a transcontinental Hyperloop train that could increase travel between the two countries. It is not likely to make it to the next stage.

Source: AP, San Diego Times-Union

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