Bridges by ‘Engineers Without Borders Germany’

In 2003 a group of structural engineers founded a new group within the charitable organisation ‘Engineers Without Borders Germany’. Inspired by the work of other non-government organisations, they set off with the goal of applying their engineering knowledge to post-disaster relief work and infrastructure development in countries where it was most needed. Over the past 10 years the group has grown into a team of engineers, architects and students spread across Germany who plan, design and execute bridge projects in developing countries. The initial projects were footbridges built in Rwanda, but the scope has expanded ever since. The group aims at providing sustainable design and construction, which means that locally available materials and construction techniques are to be preferred. Further, the training of local engineers is considered important for providing a lasting infrastructure that can be maintained by the communities themselves. To this end, training workshops have been held and a strong relationship with a local university has been established. This paper describes the challenging work of providing safe yet efficient bridge designs and outlines the execution of some projects. It also describes the history of the group and outlines some of the work undertaken in research and development.