Rice University Engineers Without Borders

Nicaragua Bridge and Water Project

For the past two years, the Nicaragua I team has worked on projects in the community of El Panama near Jinotepe, Nicaragua. During the team's first visit to the community in March 2004, the community members and the leaders expressed the need for a pedestrian bridge across the Aragon River to allow for safe crossing during the rainy season. The river, during high flow periods, separates the community from the schools, jobs, and emergency medical care that can only be found in Jinotepe. Another problem afflicting the community is a lack of potable water. The 50 family community relies almost entirely on a single well that only provides enough water to support half of the families. After obtaining EWB approval for this project and acquiring the necessary surveying skills, the team returned to El Panama in December 2004 to conduct a detailed topographic survey of the future bridge site, take health surveys, and to investigate the community's sources of potable water. The members of the Nicaragua I team recently completed the CEVE 499: Special Problems - Introduction to Bridge Design course offered in the Spring of 2005, and have completed a preliminary steel truss design for the pedestrian bridge. In the coming months, the team will be working with structural engineering professors at Rice University to optimize and finalize the bridge design. The team is also working with environmental engineers at Groundwater Services, Inc to determine an appropriate method for increasing the availability of potable water in the community. The team will be returning to Nicaragua in January of 2006 to perform a soil and foundations analysis as well as to further investigate the potential for a new drinking water well. The team hopes to begin construction on the pedestrian bridge in June of 2006 or January of 2007.

El Salvador
Project

Mexico
Project

Nicaragua 1
Project

Nicaragua 2
Project

Organizational Structure

How Rice-EWB Works