Sechum - Vehicular Bridge
Joyabaj, Guatemala
The Sechum Bridge, the first of many bridges and projects to be designed and completed under our new Joyabaj Program in Joyabaj, Guatemala, is a senior design project designed by Elyse O'Callaghan, Tim Lewis, Jake Schueller, and David Iovinelli, who are all graduated seniors of 2014 in the Civil Engineering program.
The project exists within the cluster program area of Joyabaj and will be a concrete T-beam vehicular bridge to provide access to the main highway for the communities of Sechum, Talaxcoc, and Flor Blanca (totaling ~1,300 people), while also providing access to two other communities on the highway side of the river (totaling ~2,000 people).
The goal of this project is to provide safe and consistent vehicular and pedestrian crossing over the Rio Pasaguay so community members can access Highway 2 to reach markets, high schools, and health care facilities. The scope of design work included hydrological and hydraulic analysis, geotechnical analysis, exploration of roadway re-alignment, exploration of superstructure alternatives, substructure design, retaining wall design, estimating, scheduling, life-cycle cost analysis and sustainability, and ultimately fundraising for, and completion of, the construction of the final bridge design.
More pictures from this project can be seen on this ShutterFly!