PHASE 1 - Preliminary Efforts

The Peruvian Bridge Project was first presented to Continental Crossings by the non-profit organization Bridges to Prosperity (B2P). B2P is a volunteer based charity that seeks to empower rural communities in Africa, Asia and South America through foot-bridge building. The organization has successfully constructed over one hundred foot-bridges in various countries with a well documented process. Continental Crossings began the Peruvian Bridge Project by consulting all of the materials that B2P has available to the public through their website. These resources include design manuals that contain detailed information about the construction techniques and methods for both cable suspended and suspension bridges.

Moletis Bridge, Ethiopia	Blue Nile River, Ethiopia

The second preliminary consideration Continental Crossings explored was the possibility of using timber to construct the bridge. Due to the questionable availability of materials and the assumption that timber would be less expensive than steel cable, preliminary research was completed to determine the design feasibility.

Continental Crossings also researched past indigenous designs. The Incas constructed numerous simple suspension bridges over canyons and gorges to provide access for the entire Inca Empire. These bridges were made out of massive cables of woven ichu grass linking two pylons together. Adding to the construction, two additional cables acted as guardrails. The cable supported foot path was reinforced with plaited branches which made the bridges strong enough to even carry the Spaniards when they came and conquered the Incas while riding horses. Part of the strength and reliability of these bridges, came from the fact that each cable was replaced each year by local peasants who had the sole task of maintaining and repairing these crossings.

The people of the comunidad campesina of Huinchiri, along with villagers from three other nearby communities, rebuild a suspension bridge across the canyon of the upper Río Apurimac in Peru each year. The bridge is a keshwa chaca made of ropes hand woven of qqoya grass, a type of Andean bunchgrass.