Current Project

Bridges in Prado

Community

The project is located in the village of Prado, Peru. It is in the northeastern part of the Loreto Province, about 100 km south of Iquitos, the capital of Loreto. The village is very rural with no electricity or access by paved road. Villagers have to work through unstable landscapes (creeks, heavy foliage, insects, animals, etc.) to move around. The main way to access the village is by boat on the Marañon River or dirt path that leads to neighboring villages such as Santa Cruz. There are currently four bridges located along this dirt path, however they are either rotting or susceptible to flooding from the nearby Marañon River, making it extremely difficult to cross for several months each year.

 

Project Leads


Siena Yiin: sfy2@rice.edu
Owen Jin: owj1@rice.edu

 

Sub-team Leads


Alejandra Jimenez (Travel Subteam): adj7@rice.edu@rice.edu

 

More information

Project goal

Our goal is to design and implement up to 4 new bridges, capable of handling pedestrians and small 3-wheeled motor vehicles, that are 30-100m long and that follow the Marañon river to connect Prado to Santa Cruz and onto larger towns such as Nauta.
The team has come up with 4 bridge alternatives and the implications of each design with respect to initial cost, required maintenance, constructibility, and community opinion. Using information gathered from previous assessment trips, including profile, hydrologic, and geotechnical data, we evaluate the suitability of each alternative for bridge site 1. Then, using a Pugh scoring matrix, we determine the alternative most appropriate for the site.The alternative determined to be the best fit for bridge site 1 will be fully designed, taking into consideration structural and construction restraints. We will continue communicating with Amazon Promise and the community to ensure the feasibility of our plan through the iterative design process. This specific design information will be detailed in the Implementation Plan. Bridge 1 is now tentatively slated for construction in August 2024.

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Timeline

Project Adoption Date4/15/22Bridge Project idea was adopted
Project Approval Date5/5/22Bridge project approved
Completed Assessment Trip11/09/23Remote Trip conducted to collect additional data for initial design & alternative analysis, decide go/no go decision and contact villagers through a phone call.
Planned Implementation Trip (Bridge 1)TBDTrip to construct bridge 1.
Planned M&E (Bridge 1) + Implementation (Bridge 4) TripTBDTrip to monitor the system performance and conduct minor repairs on bridge 1 and to construct bridge 4.
Planned Remote Assessment Trip (Bridge 2,3)TBDTrip to collect site-specific data for alternative analysis + detailed design for sites 2 and 3 and receive community input about the sites.
Planned M&E (Bridge 1, 4) + Implementation (Bridge 2,3) TripTBDTrip to construct bridges 2 and 3.