Apparently back in June, a section of Trump’s border wall in New Mexico fell over, though this only came to light a couple of days ago.
I don’t understand how this could happen. The wall is made of vertical slats with gaps between them so that would make it harder for even the Big Bad Wolf to blow it down. Also engineers routinely take all manner of possible stresses into account when designing these structures. This was a high wind but not a hurricane-level one, so it should have been part of their models but the wall fell over anyway.
You can see people standing around, which surprises me. This report says that the collapse occurred before they could put in additional anchoring, which would explain the presence of workers on the site, but still this has to be embarrassing.
This is not the first time a section of wall collapsed due to wind.
In January, KYMA reported that several newly installed panels of the border wall fell over in high winds and landed on the Mexican side. CBP told the station that the sections that gave away had recently been set in new concrete foundation in Calexico, California and that it had not yet been cured resulting in the panels falling.
We also have the wall built on the banks of the Rio Grande whose foundations are already showing signs of erosion.
And there is the fact that people have been able to cut through Trump’s ‘beautiful and impenetrable’ wall with equipment that you can buy at any hardware store.
Our tax dollars at work, folks!
Donnie’s wall keeps falling down, falling down, falling down…
So someone decided to cut corners to pocket some more money. Those additional supports should have been up at the same time a section/panel of the wall would be up and then removed once the concrete set (or maybe never if the wind is mainly from the Mexican side of the border.
I suppose if you really put some computational effort into the design work, maybe you could get the slats just right so that, instead of just letting the wind pass through, they created some directed airflow resulting in turbulence or eddies which could affect the structure. Actually, even plain “lift” forces in an unfortunate direction might be disastrous. At least in theory that would be a fun way to troll Mr President while also raking in the cash. At least the money isn’t going into tanks for ICE but much more recycleable scrap metal.
In lieu of an actual scientific explanation, what we see is the wind is blowing over the wall. This is a clear sign that God Hates Walls and all the inexplicably pro-Trump evangelicals are now bound to turn away from their morally, ethically and biblically bankrupt idol, right? Unless Biden is sucked into a vortex or turned into a pillar of salt, they’ll just have to vote for him. Hurrah, landslide defeat for Trump…!
Oh, once that happens someone should probably sacrifice a lamb or two in the Capitol, just to show some gratitude and, more importantly, to fuel conspiracy theories for the next 50 years. (Don’t skip the chanting and try to dress for the part)
“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall”
That solid top plate is at the end of a long lever arm.I wonder how deep the foundations go.
I was rather hoping that the wall would last long enough to be a monument to President Trump, slowly rusting away in the middle of nowhere. I may be in for a disappointment.
The best wall builders were the East Germans…. Can’t remember any of their efforts falling down, but then people still managed to escape..