US and Mexico Border Wall Collection

The U.S. and Mexico Boarder Wall calculator provides accurate estimates related to the construction of a boarder wall.  This is a non-political site.   It is for the use of both government and private citizens.   It is entirely meant to provide accurate estimations on materials that would be required to build a wall between the United States and Mexico.  The calculator functions include:

1. Volume of Concrete in a Wall
2. Weight and Length of Rebar in a Wall
3. Total Price per Cubic Yard
4. Total Price per Ton

Basic Facts

• The boarder between the United States and Mexico is 1,989 miles which includes 18 miles of maritime boundary.  The Boundary Treaty of 1970 states a boarder of 1,954 miles.
• An effective wall will be ...
  • made of concrete
    • be at least 25 feet in height above grade
    • be at least 10 feet in depth below grade
    • be at least 3 feet thick
  • have steel reinforcement bars (rebar)
    • multiple layers (3 mats) of rebar
    • six inch (6") spacing of rebar
    • size 18 rebar
• The price of concrete is $100 per cubic yard.
  • This does not include delivery, on-site pumping, development of forms, site preparation or labor.
• The price of rebar is $0.60 per pound or $1,200 per ton (2,000 lbs)

Material Costs Calculating Instructions:

Using the calculators on this page, enter the following:

1. Use the Wall - Concrete Volume calculator: (CLICK HERE) to compute the cubic yards of concrete needed:
   • Set the height (h) to 35 feet
   • Set the length (l) to 1,898 miles
   • Set the width (w) to 3 feet or 36 inches.
   • With these inputs, the calculator computes approximately 38.9 million cubic yards of concrete needed.  At $100 per cubic yard, the Price per Cubic Yard calculator (CLICK HERE) computes to $3.89 billion U.S. dollars in concrete.
2. Use the Rebar in a Wall calculator: (CLICK HERE) to compute the length and weight of rebar needed:
   • Set the wall length (l) to 1,898 miles
   • Set the wall height (h) to 35 feet
   • Set the rebar size to 18
   • Override the rebar spacing from 18" to 6"
   • Leave the inset at 3" REBAR MAT (grid)
   • Set the number of mats (grids) to 3 for a triple layer of rebar.
   • Choose Length to compute the length of rebar needed.  Note the answer is in feet, but this can be automatically converted to other units (e.g. miles) via the pull-down menu.
   • Choose Weight to compute the weight of the rebar needed.
   • With these inputs, the calculator computes 791,466 miles of reinforcement bars (4.1 billion feet), and 28,416,805 tons (U.S.) of reinforcement bars.  At $1,200 per ton, the Price per Ton calculator (CLICK HERE) computes a total cost of $34.1 billion U.S. in rebar.

Total Materials Cost

The total for rebar and concrete in the above scenario is $38 billion.  A key parameter that can effect cost is the number of mats (rebar grids) inside the wall.  Each mat is a multiplier on the amount of rebar needed.  Two mats are twice the length, weight and cost of one mat.

Theoretical Minimum

Even though the border is 1,898 miles, one should not assume that is the length of the new wall.  In some places, wall sections already exist.  Of greater consequence is the fact that the boarder is defined by a meandering river, the Rio Grande.  The wall would certainly be shortened to cut off oxbows (bends in the river).  A theoretical minimum would be achieved if one could draw a straight line (in this case a great circle arc) between the two end point (San Diego, California and Las Palama WIldlife Management Area in Texas).  That line would be 1,255 miles long, 643 miles shorter.  Furthermore, let's set the wall at only twelve inches thick (12"), with one rebar mat of size 10 rebar.  In this case, the material cost would be as follows:

• Concrete
  • 8,589,777 cubic yards of concrete
  • $858 Million
• Rebar
  • 1,981,681 tons
  • $2.37 Billion

The total cost being under $3B for materials.  This is not realistic in any way.  It would leave large parts of the United States on the Mexican side of the wall.

Middle Ground Estimate

For the middle ground, let's assume the following:

• (l) The full length of the border of 1,989 miles
• (h) Total height of the wall to be 40 feet including above and below grade.
• (w) Thickness of the wall at 8".
• (m) The number of mats (rebar grids) to be one where:
  • Grid spacing is 8"
  • Size 10 rebar

The total volume of concrete would be 10,372,266 cubic yards.  At $100 per cubic yard, the concrete cost would be a little over $1 billion.

The total length of rebar is 239,177 miles, and the total weight is 2,717,035 tons.  At $1,200 per ton, the total rebar cost would be $3.2 billion.

Therefore, the material costs would be a little over $4.2 Billion.  Note: this does not include the following:

• Site Surveys
• Excavation
• Delivery
• On-site pumping of the concrete
• The concrete forms
• The labor for all the above.

Image source is: http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/wastewater/mexican/index.cfm

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