The Border Wall Proposal from Fisher Sand and Gravel deserves more attention. It’s brilliant because of the way Fisher is using “cast in place concrete forms” which can take a 17% rise in elevation and still smooth.
Think about concrete as cake batter. A cake pan is the same thing as a concrete “form”. With cake batter we can make a cake in the shape of Mickey Mouse, a Bundt cake, or we can make cupcakes. The GREAT thing about a cake pan, is that we can put it in the dishwasher, and make the SAME shaped cake tomorrow. We can also tint cake batter green for St Patrick’s Day, the same way we can tint concrete — which means no more painting, no more rusty old steel walls.
We have companies who have forms/cake pans to make sections of pre-fab walls but the form is back at the factory, which means large sections have to be moved from the factory to the Border Wall installation. In effect, Fisher brought the cake pan to the Border Wall. The idea never existed before, — until Fisher created one.
Think about when you go to Lowe’s/Home Depot in the spring. You see concrete stepping stones for your garden, right? They usually come to the garden center shipped on a wooden pallet, and a few of those stones are already broken, right? Well, some concrete company made a concrete form, poured concrete into the form, let it cure overnight – the same way you let a cake cool before frosting it – and then the stepping stone is shipped to your local garden center, where YOU pick it up and move it into place in your garden. It’s the SAME thing with large precast panels of concrete wall, which are made at one location and then shipped/transported to another location, and lifted into place. The TRANSPORTATION becomes more difficult the bigger the item is. Remember how heavy those concrete stones are? And remember how YOU sometimes chip and break them, moving them into place?
NOW – imagine you had forms, several cake pans, at your house, which could be used, over and over again, to make an unlimited amount of stepping stones. The concrete truck comes to you. No problem with transportation. No heavy lifting, no cranes (which would be almost impossible in a mountainous region) to put the Border Wall sections into place, and……… no cracked concrete. No waste. No broken stepping stones at the bottom of the wooden pallet – or in your car.
What Fisher Industries has done is miraculous. The made a cake pan… a concrete form, which can be reused, over and over again for our Border Wall. AND — if the government will give Fisher a larger contract, Fisher will make MORE cake pans, so we can go faster. In other words, you could make 20 stepping stones per day, instead of 10 stepping stones per day — or 2 miles of Border Wall a day, instead of 1 mile a day. Fisher’s solution represents an “out of the box” solution, which is so far out of the box, it makes people wonder — why didn’t I think of that. I love it!
Here is the actual presentation Fisher created for the President and his team. Watch!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=-Mb4JoUgg-E
My first husband actually certifies concrete testing per local architects for jumbo projects. The process of building the form, and making sure the concrete is level across the form, takes time. If you screw up the form, the concrete makes a permanent mess, won’t drain correctly, etc. Premade forms are a truly brilliant solution….. but it gets better.
Fisher industries added a benefit which is a deal closer…. fiber optic sensors, even radar, with a ballard steel wall if the Border agents want to be able to see through the wall. Here is William LaJeunesse reporting on the Border Wall, ballard style, with the fiber optic capability: LINK to Border Wall with Fiber Optics
Here is the regular link if needed: https://video.foxnews.com/v/6026779741001/#sp=show-clips
The fiber optics, encased in concrete are so good, they can detect pedestrian traffic approaching the Border Wall to give agents a “heads up” about possible intrusion. Most impressive. Back in 1984, I worked for ADT Security. We had ultrasonic vibration sensors we used to install, encased in concrete, which could detect an attempt on a bank vault. The install guys joked that we could hear an earthworm puking at 100′. When the subject of a Border Wall came up during the campaign, I thought, yeah……, I bet the sensors are a lot better now. And what do you know…. they’re a whole lot better.
The Dems and opponents of the wall gripe about “they’ll just dig under a border wall”. Breitbart (I think it was Brandon Darby who has done excellent work on this subject but am unable to locate the interview this morning) had a long interview with a guy, working in Mexico, spent a decade tracking cartels. Most interesting. I was surprised to learn only about 100 tunnels had been found in 20yrs. We’ve been led to believe tunnels are a huge problem when they are actually quite rare. Come to find out, the reason there were so few tunnels was based on simple reasons.
-Tunnels are expensive. They need infrastructure, lighting, and forced aeration, and take a long time to construct.
-Tunnels in open areas of the desert are easily detected by Border Patrol. Where we mostly find tunnels are in places where there was a city on both sides of border. Illegals cross over into a house or sheltered building, to avoid detection, ….. but the neighbors quickly reported the problem, because they didn’t want police hanging around their neighborhood.
Here is one more video worth sharing. Again, this is Fisher Industries using time lapse photography to show the install.
10 X FASTER than older methods, Fisher Industry can install over ONE MILE of bollard fence PER DAY! Way to go, guys! Finish that border WALL!
Watch! (sound on) pic.twitter.com/cjBOo7WBm2
— Cari Kelemen (@KelemenCari) April 9, 2019
Overall, the ingenuity shown by American companies is inspiring to us all. Makes me think there is nothing Americans cannot do when we put our minds to it.
Well done.
Makes me proud to be an American!
