Paint It Black

[Stevicus]

Trump wants the border wall painted black and it could cost an extra $1 million per mile

The Trump administration is testing part of the US-Mexico border wall with black coating, a move that comes after President Donald Trump expressed his desire to paint his signature wall black but also could cost an extra $1 million per mile.

US Customs and Border Protection, which oversees border wall construction, is painting approximately 450 feet of new border wall in San Luis, Arizona, using a “coal tar epoxy,” in an effort to assess the operational benefits, according to the agency. The border agency is testing for a “coating which will extend the life of steel,” a spokesperson told CNN.

Apparently, it's supposed to extend the life of the steel, although another official said there didn't appear to be any significant structural advantage to painting the wall.

During an Oval Office meeting last year, Trump told various government officials that he wanted the wall to be painted black and to include French-style doors. The idea appeared to die down since. But a few months ago, Trump wanted the wall painted again, according to an administration official.

Painting the wall comes at a cost. Depending on what paint is used, it could increase the cost up to $1.2 million per mile, the official said. If paint is applied to all 450 new miles that Trump has said will be built by early next year, the price tag would be roughly $500 million.

There doesn’t appear to be any significant structural advantage to painting the wall, the official added.

French-style doors?

"I see a red door and I want to paint it black."

 

[Valjean]

Why not solar panels? Could power the whole Southwest.

 

[Sunstone]

Oh, who cares? $500 million is only taxpayer money. Let's include it in the national debt. That way our grateful children and grandchildren can pay for it.

 

[sun rise]

The Stones "Painted Black" was one of my favorites back in the day.

 

[lewisnotmiller]

Hmm...story time.
One of the large sports stadiums here in Australia was a client of mine.
The CEO of that stadium was a very well known figure, regularly interviewed by the media, etc (for various reasons, not just stadium-related).

In any case, we were trying to design their work order management system for scheduling maintenance work. We were going through how they prioritise work. I'm paraphrasing, but it went something like;

1 - Low Priority
2 - Intermediate Priority
3 - High Priority
4 - Urgent
5 - CEO's name

I chuckled, but the room was silent, and appeared to be dead serious. In the end, I talked them into tweaking the naming convention a little, but they literally needed a maintenance priority that they could tag random work orders with, whenever the CEO stamped his foot.

And the example they gave was the time they had to stop urgent repair work on a seating bay to repaint a branding sign, resulting in a small group of seats being roped off during a game for safety reasons (but the sign looking neat).

This reminded me of that story.
Side note, but that same CEO was a trough-talker. Longest conversations he ever had with me were when we were standing at the urinal next to each other.

[/story]

 

[Twilight Hue]

Why not solar panels? Could power the whole Southwest.

Hey why not? That would be a great idea!

 

[Erebus]

Personally, I'm in favour of painting the wall black but I don't think it should stop there.

It needs great big towers that spew out flames. It should also be studded with gargoyles that pour molten lead on besieging armies. Then you add a moat of lava. Why lava? Because you can't just swim through it, that's why. Then you add curving blades along the top and decorate them with the skulls of Trump's enemies. Finally, you man the wall with an army of orcs and perhaps one or two dragons.

If Trump can build a wall like that, then he has my full support. Sure it would cost a lot but it would look amazing.

 

[Kangaroo Feathers]

Oh, who cares? $500 million is only taxpayer money. Let's include it in the national debt. That way our grateful children and grandchildren can pay for it.

But Mexico is going to pay for it, trump promised!

 

[Secret Chief]

Since Covid, Mexico is begging for the wall to get finished...in any ******* colour.