Project Summary

The goal of this project is to build a bridge for the community of San Jose Petacalapa so that the community will have increased access to their crop fields. During the rainy season, the river that divides San Jose Petacalapa floods, making their crop fields inaccessible. By constructing this bridge, EWB-UD hopes to increase the amount of time the people of San Jose Petacalapa can spend working their fields, leading to an increase in the amount of food available to the community and increasing economic activity.

Starting the Project

With increased student interest and participation in EWB, our chapter decided to start this new project in San Jose Petacalapa, Guatemala. San Jose Petacalapa is located in the San Marcos region of Guatemala, about 20 minutes west of Malacatan. In spring 2008, EWB-UD partnered with UD Professor April Veness, who is active with her research on the Guatemalan migrant population and has already established many connections in Guatemala. In June 2008, Dr. Veness traveled to Guatemala to conduct research. At the same time, Dr. Veness found the San Jose Petacalapa. The San Jose Petacalapa Consejo (Council) expressed their need for a bridge and desire to work with EWB-UD. EWB-UD took this project on, and, in December 2008, became an official project with EWB-USA. The Guatemala Design Team is hoping to construct a 15m span bridge. This one-lane bridge would be able to hold the weight of a pick-up truck with a full load of crops. We had an assessment trip in August 2009 to investigate the feasibility of our original designs.