Trump’s ‘big, beautiful wall’ - which design will win?

Like a modern art installation, eight uniquely designed pieces of looming wall have been erected on the Mexico-US border, with the hope that one will be President Donald Trump’s pick for the 2,000-mile (3,200km) southern barrier.

The designs were selected by US Customs and Border Protection from hundreds of entrants. Contractors had only 30 days to construct the 30ft-tall and 30ft-wide (9.1x9.1m) edifices in California, near the Otay Mesa border crossing.

Trump’s campaign narrative declares that once a winner is chosen, building will start on the wall at a cost of around $21bn.

‘Special operation teams’ from El Paso and Florida put the walls to rigorous testing. Apparently, all the designs withstood cutting torches, concrete saws and jackhammers better than anything currently deployed along the border, including the 3m-tall corrugated steel primary fence and the 5.5m steel-mesh secondary fence.

Nor could Border Patrol scale the immense height of the pieces, according to Fox News, as each edifice employs anti-climbing and anti-perching features.

Six contractors built the eight potential border walls.

WG Yates & Sons built a corrugated metal wall topped with a rounded metal pipe. Cost: $458,103

Also from WG Yates & Sons is a concrete construction topped with a rounded pipe. Cost: $453,548

ELTA North America produced a concrete base topped with metal plates and a tube. Cost: $406,319

Caddell Construction’s first entry is made of concrete and narrows to a pointed top. Cost: $344,000

Caddell also offered spaced metal poles with plates and concrete blocks above. Cost: $320,000

Texas Sterling Construction used concrete with a top plate covered with spikes. Cost: $470,000

Hispanic-owned KWR Construction used spaced metal columns, metal plates and a tube. Cost: $486,411

Fisher Sand & Gravel’s simple concrete piece was the only one built on site. Cost: $365,000