Event Title
STR-816: THE RIO ABAJO FOOTBRIDGE: PROMOTING DEVELOPMENT THROUGH THE USE OF RESILIENT INFRASTRUCTURE
Location
London
Event Website
http://www.csce2016.ca/
Description
In the remote farmlands of the developing world, walking is the primary form of transportation. When rivers flood during the rainy season, walks to school, work or the doctor can become life threatening without a bridge to cross. For hundreds of millions of people worldwide, rural isolation caused by a shortage of safe river crossings is a significant impediment to economic development and self-sufficiency. Non-profit organization Bridges to Prosperity (B2P) works with vulnerable communities to build footbridges that create year-round access to essential services. Data describing flood and wind events is often not available in the rural areas of the developing world where the footbridges are constructed. Resilience is an important aspect of the footbridges' design and construction, as the bridges must provide access to essential services after flood or wind events. This paper presents a case study of an 81-metre pedestrian suspension bridge constructed in Nicaragua in March 2015 as part of a B2P build project with the community of Rio Abajo and bridge professionals from Canada and the United States. Ensuring resilience to floods, windstorms and vandalism was the basis for several design decisions and construction procedures implemented on the bridge. Structural redundancy ensures resilience if bridge components are removed or damaged. Foundation locations and design assumptions ensure the structure will continue to fulfill its intended function during significant flood events. Less than one year after construction, the structure performed as intended when the Pueblo Nuevo River flooded its banks.
Included in
STR-816: THE RIO ABAJO FOOTBRIDGE: PROMOTING DEVELOPMENT THROUGH THE USE OF RESILIENT INFRASTRUCTURE
London
In the remote farmlands of the developing world, walking is the primary form of transportation. When rivers flood during the rainy season, walks to school, work or the doctor can become life threatening without a bridge to cross. For hundreds of millions of people worldwide, rural isolation caused by a shortage of safe river crossings is a significant impediment to economic development and self-sufficiency. Non-profit organization Bridges to Prosperity (B2P) works with vulnerable communities to build footbridges that create year-round access to essential services. Data describing flood and wind events is often not available in the rural areas of the developing world where the footbridges are constructed. Resilience is an important aspect of the footbridges' design and construction, as the bridges must provide access to essential services after flood or wind events. This paper presents a case study of an 81-metre pedestrian suspension bridge constructed in Nicaragua in March 2015 as part of a B2P build project with the community of Rio Abajo and bridge professionals from Canada and the United States. Ensuring resilience to floods, windstorms and vandalism was the basis for several design decisions and construction procedures implemented on the bridge. Structural redundancy ensures resilience if bridge components are removed or damaged. Foundation locations and design assumptions ensure the structure will continue to fulfill its intended function during significant flood events. Less than one year after construction, the structure performed as intended when the Pueblo Nuevo River flooded its banks.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/csce2016/London/Structural/10
