Charlotte Fernández
UKIMEA Press Office,Leeds
BridgeTOOL enables the building of bridges in developing countries.
A team of nine Arup volunteers has travelled to Panama to build a bridge that will connect the villages of Arriba, Teria Nacimiento and El Caracoral.
The suspension footbridge will be eight metres in height and will span a distance of 46 metres across the river Ciricito. Currently the river floods four months of the year and cannot be crossed safely so the bridge will provide vital access to local schools, markets and medical facilities.
Arup is working on the project with Bridges to Prosperity (B2P), a not-for-profit organisation that aims to overcome rural isolation through the construction of footbridges over impassable areas enabling people to access health centres, schools and towns.
The project will use Arup’s ‘BridgeTOOL’ software, a design and learning resource which enables the rapid design of pedestrian suspension bridges in developing countries. BridgeTOOL can run on any laptop and requires no specialist knowledge of design software. It also advises on the use of materials, structure and safety while acting as a learning resource to inform, teach and train engineers in rurally isolated communities.
The Arup volunteers will also be visiting the local university UTP Penenome (Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá, Penenome region) and will present to civil engineering students about B2P and the project in Panama. A select group of students will also join the team on site where they will gain first-hand experience on the engineering and construction of the bridge.
The Panama venture builds on the success of the Arup and B2P project in Rwanda in 2013. The team spent two weeks in Rwanda building the first bridge designed using the BridgeTOOL system. The bridge, which connects Rwanda’s Muregeya and Rutsiro Districts, near the village of Rubengera opened on the 2 August 2013.