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Pavolaj Suspended Pedestrian Footbridge
Project # 080
Project Slide Show
Pedestrian Footbridge Type: Suspension
Bridge Sponsors:
Partners:Helvetas Guatemala
Volunteers:
Dedication:
Memorial:
Community Name: Pavolaj
River Name: Rio Choanla
Bridge Span: 35 meters
Population Served: 1680
Bridge Story: In the department of San Marcos in the western highlands of Guatemala, about 80% of the population lives in rural areas or small towns with limited access to nearby trails and important intercity roads. Routes to markets, industry, and services are disrupted during the seasonal rains; river crossings become dangerous or outright impassable, limiting the livelihoods of the rural population. One such community is Pavolaj, located in the municipality of San José Ojetenan. Pavolaj is a large community of several thousand people, scattered around the wide Pavolaj Valley. There is only one shaky bridge currently over the river at the bottom of the valley, serving the people of several hundred homes, but because of the bridge's dilapidated condition, most people choose to walk directly across the river. When the river rises, however, the residents are forced to risk their lives walking across the precarious bridge. The current joint venture between Helvetas Guatemala and Bridges To Prosperity has identified a number of vulnerable communities in the highlands of the San Marcos department, specifically in the municipalities of Ixchiguan and San José Ojetenan. Helvetas's water and sanitation projects in these areas in particular are often out of reach for many of the more remote communities. Children and adults attempting to cross swollen rivers simply to conduct the daily activities of attending schools, reaching markets, clinics, and jobs put their lives in danger, and a local tradition has sprung up of building bridges by the concerned members of the communities. However, these unsound structures, built without much of a budget or technical expertise, often add further risk instead of sufficiently solving the problems.
The Helvetas and Bridges To Prosperity partnership has the following objectives for the Guatemalan bridge program:
* Introduce high-quality standards with bridge projects that provide secure, durable, and sustainable access throughout the rural areas.
* Create bridge-building skills that are certifiable on the local and national levels. * Encourage municipalities and communities to adopt high-quality bridge construction and maintenance techniques.
The Helvetas Bridge Coordinator in Guatemala is civil engineer Giezy Sanchez, a native of the San Marcos department. Giezy has experience working with the Catholic Relief Services, the United Nations Development Programm, USAID, and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. Giezy's specialty is rural infrastructure projects, including potable water projects, solid waste management, road improvement, pedestrian bridges, sanitation systems, and gabion retaining wall construction.
Giezy particularly enjoys demonstrating the utility and quality of his implemented projects, and he hopes that his experiences working with Bridges to Prosperity will allow him to grow as an engineer. Giezy hopes that his refined bridge-building skills will further benefit the communities in his home region.
Click on the Google Earth™ logo-Project link below to see a satellite view of the bridge site. Get a free copy of Google Earth™ here.
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