• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Exclusive

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief: Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief: Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief: Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief: Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief: Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief: Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief: Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief: Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief: Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief: Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

FinanceDonald Trump

Big Cement CEO Likens Trump’s Mexico Wall to the Great Wall of China

By
Jen Wieczner
Jen Wieczner
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Jen Wieczner
Jen Wieczner
Down Arrow Button Icon
January 26, 2017, 4:55 PM ET

After Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday to construct a “physical wall” on the Mexican border, controversy immediately erupted over what it might look like, how much it will cost and who will pay for it.

With cost estimates for the border wall ranging from $10 billion to upwards of $25 billion, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto canceled his meeting at the White House Thursday after refusing President Trump’s demands that Mexico provide the money. But some American business leaders are looking past the political turmoil and getting excited about a massive infrastructure opportunity, which has already added about $2 billion in market capitalization to the stocks of U.S. construction companies.

The roster of eager executives includes Bill Sandbrook, CEO of U.S. Concrete (USCR) — yes, they supply ready-mixed concrete for all sorts of building projects — who spoke with Fortune about what it would take to build Trump’s wall. In addition to having met Trump personally prior to the election, Sandbrook, who is also an Army veteran, is better positioned to understand the ins-and-outs of building the wall than many other corporate leaders: U.S. Concrete’s headquarters, outside of Dallas, are some 400 miles from Mexico, and Sandbrook has seen the landscape at the border with his own eyes.

Although Trump has yet to release any specs for the wall, Sandbrook offered some context that illustrates how unprecedented the project really is. Mexico’s border with the U.S. is some 2,000 miles long, though roughly 653 miles (or almost a third) of it has already been fenced off in previous government projects. That leaves 1,347 miles needing a wall to comply with Trump’s executive order calling for a “contiguous land border between the United States and Mexico, including all points of entry.”

“I don’t think there are any walls of this length,” Sandbrook told Fortune. “Not of this scale since the Great Wall of China.” (China’s Great Wall is several times as long, running more than 13,000 miles in total.)

Here’s what else Sandbrook had to say about Trump’s plans to build the wall, edited for length and clarity:

What are your thoughts on President Trump so far?

President Trump is a doer, he’s a builder, he’s an outsider, he has a can-do American spirit focused on the U.S. And after the inauguration, what does he do? He does exactly what he said he was going to do. There’s a lot of details to be fleshed out in the policies I’m most interested in, which are tax reform, regulatory reform, and infrastructure, but frankly I’m extremely pleased with the follow-through.

What do you think of the wall?

Well in general, I’m apolitical on it. As far as the actual construction of a 2,000-mile structure, it’s yet to be determined what the primary materials are going to be, and right now it hasn’t been specified if there’ll be concrete in there somewhere, whether holding metal fencing into the ground or whether it will be a concrete structure itself. But we would vigorously look at the opportunity that might avail itself to be a material supplier for the project.

What would it actually take to build a wall at the Mexican border?

It’s a very rural, desolate area. There are not many concrete fixed plants in large segments of that geography. If it’s [made from] concrete, it would have to be done by portable plants where actually the plant is on the truck itself to supply it. It has to be local. You can’t ship this from 500 miles away; ready-mixed concrete is a local business.

 

This won’t necessarily be a super-complex or super-sophisticated concrete design. We did the Freedom Tower in New York, and that was very specialized, high-strength concrete. But concrete [for the border wall] doesn’t have to withstand the tolerance that going up 90 stories does.

Does the landscape along the border present other challenges to building a wall?

This would be more desert, high desert, rugged terrain. It’s a fairly remote, rugged area. A lot of that area doesn’t even have roads going into it, so it’ll be a fairly complex engineering feat. These rugged areas, you’re not driving 60 or 70 miles per hour, so [the concrete has to be relatively close by so that it doesn’t harden while in transit]. Another option is to construct concrete panels off-site and ship the panels, though they’re not the easiest thing to ship, especially across rugged terrain, because they tend to crack.

But I think it’s very doable. Even though it’s in rugged terrain, it’s not insurmountable by any means. But it’s long. It’s a long, long way from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. We can build hundred-story skyscrapers in Manhattan. This is just the wall, it’s just long.

How big do you envision the wall being?

I can’t even dimension that because I don’t know what the specifications are going to be. People are talking about 13 feet [high], people say 30 feet; I’m withholding any speculation.

But this is not going to be a barrier designed to prevent the invasion of Normandy. This is not a barrier that needs to be 40 feet thick to stop armies. It’s probably going to be multiple materials depending on the segment being constructed. But there’s no question it’s going to be a physical wall.

How long do you think it will take to start building the wall?

The wall could be fast-tracked. Less than six months, more than one.

Do you have any estimates of how much the wall will cost?

There’s a lot of pundits out there kicking around numbers, but I think it’s premature because nobody knows what the design is. I’d rather withhold my judgment or withhold my judgment on our company’s opportunity til I saw more details. I’m not a pundit. I’m a CEO trying to look for opportunities to increase shareholder value.

Some investors have speculated that Mexican cement company Cemex (CX) could be a contender to build the border wall. Do you think U.S. suppliers have any advantage in the bidding for this project?

On the pipelines earlier this week, [President Trump] mandated domestically produced steel. He has an America-first agenda, and having a name like U.S. Concrete, you can’t get any more American than that.

About the Author
By Jen Wieczner
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Finance

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Finance

John Ketchum, CEO of NextEra Energy, speaks during BlackRock's 2026 Infrastructure Summit in Washington, DC, on March 11, 2026. Photographer: Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
EnergyNextEra Energy
NextEra’s $67 billion Dominion takeover creates the world’s largest utility—just in time to win the AI data-center power surge
By Jordan BlumMay 18, 2026
5 hours ago
Employers are quietly pausing 401(k) matches again. The last time this happened was the 2008 recession and Covid
Personal Finance401(k)
Employers are quietly pausing 401(k) matches again. The last time this happened was the 2008 recession and Covid
By Courtney Vinopal and HR BrewMay 18, 2026
5 hours ago
Harvard University banners hang in front of a building
CryptoCryptocurrency
Harvard sold off its entire $87 million Ethereum stake just one quarter after buying it
By Jack KubinecMay 18, 2026
5 hours ago
Interior view of the New York Stock Exchange
Economyinvestors
New York Fed warns about $69 trillion foreign investment ‘burden’ on U.S. economy
By Tristan BoveMay 18, 2026
6 hours ago
President Donald Trump speaks to the media aboard Air Force One on May 15, 2026.
EconomyDonald Trump
While Trump insisted the Iran war would end ‘soon,’ an account in his name was buying millions in oil, defense and gold
By Eva RoytburgMay 18, 2026
7 hours ago
Ryanair’s CFO says the airline has plans for an ‘armageddon situation’ as the jet fuel crisis threatens weaker European airlines this winter
EnergyAirline industry
Ryanair’s CFO says the airline has plans for an ‘armageddon situation’ as the jet fuel crisis threatens weaker European airlines this winter
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezMay 18, 2026
7 hours ago

Most Popular

The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises
Politics
The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises
By Jake AngeloMay 12, 2026
6 days ago
Microsoft AI chief gives it 18 months—for all white-collar work to be automated by AI
AI
Microsoft AI chief gives it 18 months—for all white-collar work to be automated by AI
By Jake AngeloMay 16, 2026
3 days ago
The top foreign holders of U.S. debt may soon dump Treasury bonds and bring their money back home, potentially spiking borrowing costs
Economy
The top foreign holders of U.S. debt may soon dump Treasury bonds and bring their money back home, potentially spiking borrowing costs
By Jason MaMay 17, 2026
1 day ago
SpaceX heads into a record-shattering IPO with the 'deepest moat that exists today' as investors vow to 'never bet against Elon'
Innovation
SpaceX heads into a record-shattering IPO with the 'deepest moat that exists today' as investors vow to 'never bet against Elon'
By Jason MaMay 16, 2026
2 days ago
Mamdani's New York is coming to tax your private jet. Here's how to prepare
Personal Finance
Mamdani's New York is coming to tax your private jet. Here's how to prepare
By Greg RaiffMay 16, 2026
3 days ago
While Trump insisted the Iran war would end ‘soon,’ an account in his name was buying millions in oil, defense and gold
Economy
While Trump insisted the Iran war would end ‘soon,’ an account in his name was buying millions in oil, defense and gold
By Eva RoytburgMay 18, 2026
7 hours ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.