UNDERGRADUATE FEATURE STORY
The student group, Bridges to Prosperity, spent this summer in Panama building a bridge to support a local community. The suspended pedestrian bridge leading to Caimital has a 76 meter span. The bridge connects the people of Caimital to Penonome, which is the local capital of Cocle, a province in Panama. The community members need to get to Penonome in order to access markets, higher education, and doctors. The Caimital side of the bridge has a standard gravity anchor with three tiers. The anchor on the Penonome side of the bridge was redesigned as a hybrid rock anchor since rock was struck during excavation. This side has two tiers. The large number of tiers are required in order to meet the two meter spacing requirement between the bridge decking and high water level when the river floods.
The footbridge is built over a huge ravine with a river in the bottom. The river floods often during the rainy season, which isolates the community. The existing road bridge flooded once while the team was working on construction on the Penonome side of the bridge; they waited several hours for the large trees and debris to travel down the river and then walked through rushing water above their knees in order to get home that evening. The water comes hard and fast whenever it rains a great deal upstream. The advisors for the trip were Dr. Jay Regan, Dr. Alfonso Mejia and Department Head Staff Assistant Devon Johnson.
Bridges to Prosperity students photographed on the anchor of the bridge in photo above are from left to right: Jake Rausch, Danielle Berman, Matt Malencia, Yulissa Guerrero, Steve Mezzacappa, Allie Hoffman, Zach Makarewicz, Eric McCall, Nicolai Zoretich, and Jen Kearney.