Tales of Bridgebuilders
The dream began in Ecuador
In the winter, the water under this bridge outside Portoviejo, Ecuador rises 20 meters.
Ecuador:
The Birth of a Dream
The South American country’s climate and dramatic topography make safe,
sturdy bridges a necessity for the campesinos.
The Republic of Ecuador straddles the Equator and is one of the most geographically
and ecologically diverse countries in South America. This is where Toni Ruttimann,
known as Toni el Suizo in Latin America, arrived in 1987 with only a bag and the will to
help victims of an earthquake. Almost twenty years later, more than 150 safe pedestrian
bridges have been built and more than 238,000 people around the country have benefited.
COLOMBIA
ESMERALDAS
7 BRIDGES
IMBABURA
4 BRIDGES
1 BRIDGE
PICHINCHA
MANABÍ
23 BRIDGES
48 BRIDGES
Pacific Ocean
SUCUMBÍOS
18 BRIDGES
FCO ORELLANA
1 BRIDGE
COTOPAXI
LOS RIOS
17 BRIDGES
1 BRIDGE
BOLIVAR
ECUADOR
CHIMBORAZO
6 BRIDGES
Why are bridges so important? Ecuador is susceptible to a variety of natural hazards
such as frequent earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic activity. During rainy winter
months, the coastal basin swells and often causes flooding in both rural and urban areas.
And in 1998, the El Niño Southern Oscillation Phenomenon pushed Ecuador into one of
its worst economic crises, causing US$ 3 billion in damages, especially to infrastructure.
CARCHI
5 BRIDGES
AZUAY
2 BRIDGES
PERU
LOJA
22 BRIDGES
One victim of the 1998 natural disaster was the aqueduct that supplies Manabí’s capital
city Portoviejo with water. Alongside the provincial government, Toni and his right-hand
man, Walter Yánez, built their one and only water-pipeline bridge, restoring water to
200,000 users within 12 days.
Ecuador has become Toni’s second homeland. “My dream was born in the Amazon
Jungle. The dream of building bridges with and for the poor. The Ecuadorian campesinos
have inspired what now has become an invisible network of friends- a movement that
has spread to countries around the world,” he says.
Tenaris 3
To Build a Bridge
Seeing on TV the devastation the 1987 earthquake had left in Ecuador, nineteen year-old
Toni Ruttimann boarded a plane in his native Switzerland the very morning after he
graduated from high school. He carried some savings and small donations from neighbors
in his mountain valley.
Toni and Walter Yánez, some ten years ago
in Ecuador.
Once in the disaster area, Toni soon realized how he could best aid the Ecuadorian
damnificados, many of whom were left isolated when the raging rivers swept away the
bridges connecting them with local schools, hospitals, roads and marketplaces. With
scarce materials, the technical guidance of a Dutch engineer and the campesinos’
willpower, Toni built his first footbridge.
After six months, Toni returned to Switzerland and began his university studies in civil
engineering, a five-year program. After only six weeks he resigned, determined to give
his life to help the poor.
Back in Ecuador, living with the campesinos in the jungle, he invented a way of building
suspension bridges for free, by hand and on their own: the campesinos would do the excavations, carry sand and stone from the river for the bridge’s foundation, bring wood from the
forest for the bridge floor. Toni el Suizo, as the peasants named him, started asking nearby
oil companies for their used drilling cable, their scrapped steel pipes and leftover cement.
Slowly and carefully, one bridge followed another, with lengths of 30 meters up to 260
meters. During his fifth year he was joined by Walter Yánez, who would become Toni
el Suizo’s right-hand man.
The villagers even in very secluded communities got word of these two bridgebuilders
who worked with the poor. Soon, requests for new bridges multiplied. Today, Walter
and Toni are never without work.
According to Toni’s method, which he calls KISS (Keep It Simple & Safe), it takes only
a few steps to build a medium-size 50-meter community bridge: Survey (1 hour), excavations and accumulation of sand and stone (2-4 days), cementations (1-3 days), final
bridge assembly (1-2 days). On every occasion, it takes some 40 people. And if they
don’t show, there’s no bridge.
In 1998, after 11 years and 99 bridges in Ecuador and Colombia, Toni and Walter rushed
to help in Honduras, devastated by hurricane Mitch. There, and also in Nicaragua
and Costa Rica, they built 51 bridges aiding more than 100,000 people. One of them
was the first bi-national bridge in the bridgebuilder’s history, spanning the Rio Lempa
between El Salvador and Honduras.
LOCATION
ID 253
Country
Province
Canton
Parish
Community
Bridge Name
Access by
Directions to bridge
Ecuador
Loja
Palta
Lourdes
Tarapal
El Macanche
Pickup 4x4
River Side
Catacocha, coamine, tarapal
CONTACTS
Contact Name
Contact Title
Contact Tel.
Fixed
168.3 mm
22.19 m
Height
Width
Weight kg
0.017 0.168 1.642 0.168 0.017
PIPE MARKS
Vertical:
TOWER RIGHT
Type
Pipe dia.
Total Pipe
8.332 m
1.995 m
689.2 kg
7.995
5.00
7.00
6.00
5.00
4.00
4.00
3.00
3.00
2.00
2.00
1.00
1.00
0.00
Qty
1
2
2
2
Element
CB Top
Vertical
Crossbeam
Plinth
(m)
1.995
7.995
1.642
0.180
-1.00
-2.00
-3.00
0.00
Qty
1
2
1
2
Element
CB Top
Vertical
Crossbeam
Plinth
Fixed
168.3 mm
18.98 m
Height
Width
Weight kg
(m)
1.995
7.295
1.642
0.180
-1.00
-2.00
-3.00
Type
Pipe dia.
Total Pipe
2.5 m
2.827 m
527.3 kg
0.017 0.168 1.642 0.168 0.017
7.295
5.463
0.168
1.663
6.00
-30.00
-20.00
-10.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
80.00
89.00
102.00
114.00
119.00
(y)
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.17
-8.00
0.00
5.50
7.48
9.20
10.30
MAIN ANCHORS
Type
Pipe dia.
Total Pipe
7.632 m
1.995 m
589.5 kg
PIPE MARKS
Vertical:
7.00
2.998
0.168
2.998
0.168
1.663
Ground Left 3
Ground Left 2
Ground Left 1
Tower Left
Floor Left
FC Level / HW Level
Floor Right
Tower Right
Ground Right 1
Ground Right 2
Ground Right 3
NOTES
TOWER LEFT
Height
Width
Weight kg
(x)
TOPOGRAPHY
EL MACANCHE - PALTA - LOJA
Pi
168.3 mm
16.98 m
0.424 0.168 1.642 0.168 0.424
Qty
2
4
4
Element
CB Top
Vertical
Plinth
(m)
2.827
2.163
0.420
3.00
2.00
1.00
0.00
TOWER SUB
1.00
??fl?? ??fl??
?
?
?
?
?
?
0.20
?
?
0.00
?
?
0.80
0.60
0.40
Toni developed a software system to remotely
control bridgebuilding activities around the
world, assure perfection in the engineering of
each bridge, and show the origin and usage
of all materials implemented. Every bridge has
its own page in the system with information
available in a variety of languages.
Tenaris 5
Some forty volunteers are needed
to build a community bridge.
In 2001, Toni and Walter moved on to Mexico where they built 28 bridges using materials donated by Tenaris, the first collaboration between Toni and the company.
Even facing supply and customs difficulties, Toni never slowed down. After meeting
a Cambodian refugee during a trip to Switzerland, the bridgebuilders took a great leap
forward by splitting up: Toni would work mainly in Asia, Walter in Latin America.
Toni finds opportunities even in the face of serious obstacles. In 2002, the bridgebuilder
contracted Guillan-Barré Syndrome in Cambodia, an illness that left him paralyzed
from the head down. During the two years that he underwent rehabilitation in
Thailand’s Sirindhorn Center, el Suizo developed a software system to remote-control
the engineering and logistics of any bridge anywhere.
From his hospital bed and later from his wheelchair, Toni coordinated construction with
Walter in Ecuador and Yin Sopul, his Khmer co-worker in Cambodia. The system allowed
him to control quality and logistics from any place on Earth.
They would upload bridge site measurements and then download detailed instructions in
any internet cafe along their route. Even though he did not have control of his body, Toni
was in control of the bridges, and so his two friends built 54 bridges without his presence.
Tenaris 7
Getting Across the River
Toni’s bridges impact the lives of the campesinos in Latin America and Asia.
The story of Darwin Toledo and his family is just one example.
Darwin Toledo and his family on their community bridge outside Santo Domingo de los Colorados.
During the winter, Darwin Toledo’s family had to risk their lives in a precarious canoe
to cross the river that separated them from their crop fields, the local school and the
recreational club. “Many lives were lost trying to get across,” Toledo remembers.
So that his children would not miss classes, Darwin’s wife, like many other neighbors,
would spend weeks at the local club on the other side of the river.
In the rural outskirts of Santo Domingo, Ecuador, the safest alternative to crossing
the river meant traveling 20 kilometers…on foot.
For generations, the locals dreamed of building a bridge but they lacked sufficient
funds and manpower for the initiative. When the community met with Walter Yánez,
Toni’s right-hand man, in 2004, the decision was unanimous. “Immediately, everyone supported the idea of building the bridge ourselves,” says Toledo.
“Before the bridge, my wife and children
had to spend entire weeks sleeping
at a club on the other side of the
river so that my kids wouldn’t miss
class.”
Darwin Toledo
The municipality donated gravel. The entire community got together to buy the sand
and cement. They cut trees from the hillside and created boards to serve as the floor of
the bridge. And some fifty members of the community worked on the bridge’s construction.
The work was tough. The men had to carry the steel tubes for the towers and then
cement their base under the summer sun.
Although working on the bridge often meant missing a day of work, there was always
an abundance of volunteers. “In a few weeks, we had the bridge we had waited for
during decades,” he concludes.
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Members of the San Agustín de las Vacas community in Ecuador work diligently to hang the cables for their bridge.
A Common Cause
Toni el Suizo approached Tenaris for the first time in 2001. It marked
the beginning of a relationship that continues today.
Before meeting a group of Tenaris engineers, Toni would build bridges with discarded
materials and steel tubes, leftovers from oil operations.
One day in 2001, the bridgebuilder decided to visit Tenaris’s tubular products mill in
Mexico and ask if they had any to spare. The company provided him with enough
products to build 28 solid and secure bridges throughout the state of Veracruz, which
has served some 30,000 people in rural communities.
When Toni decided to make the leap to Asia, he again went to Tenaris for tubes. In 2005,
he used this donation to build more than 70 bridges in Ecuador, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Toni wrote about Tenaris’s donations in an online article. “There are no inaugurations or
plaques above the bridges. No stamping their global brand on our shirts. Maybe this is because
they can see my dream. For more than 100 thousand poor people, who have never heard
the Tenaris name and probably never will, their generous act speaks the language of hope.”
Today, the relationship between Toni and Tenaris goes from strength to strength. The
company has donated another 185.4 tons of brand new tubes for some 70 bridges that
will be constructed throughout 2007 in different Latin American and Asian countries.
What’s more, Ternium, a leading supplier of flat and long steel products in the Latin
American market and Tenaris’s associate company, has donated 157.2 tons of flat steel
for 50 bridges in the same locations.
Tenaris 11
Walter Yánez (in red) carries on the bridgebuilding tradition in Ecuador while Toni works in Asia.
Toni’s Right-Hand Man
Walter Yánez has played an important role in the growth of the bridgebuilders
movement throughout Latin America.
While Toni lay paralyzed by Guillan-Barré Syndrome in Cambodia, his fellow bridgebuilder
Walter Yánez was facing a great challenge in Mexico. Working with Toni via internet
and phone, he built twenty-six bridges in one year alongside the Veracruz campesinos.
When he was about to begin construction of the last four bridges near the town of Córdoba,
some local engineers paid him a visit. “This Ecuadorian is crazy,” they said after visiting the
site of the new bridges. “He claims he will build this 70-meter bridge in one month.”
“Can call me crazy,” countered Walter, “but I’m going to build four of them before I
leave.” And so he did.
When Walter met Toni el Suizo, he was working in a missionary high school teaching welding
in the oil town of Lago Agrio in the Amazon region. In the beginning he helped Toni with
welding at night and on the weekends. Years later he finally decided to join Toni full-time.
With the salary that comes from the donations Toni receives, Walter provides for his
family. Before his son started school, Walter’s family would accompany him when he
worked with the communities.
Today, Walter is Toni’s partner in Ecuador. Stopping at internet cafés to access the
bridgebuilding system, Walter stays in constant contact with Toni, making sure the
movement continues to thrive in Latin America while Toni works in Asia.
Tenaris 13
A Promise Fulfilled
After nearly losing his wife and unborn daughter to the river’s currents,
Arnaldo Alcívar promised to build a bridge to unite two communities.
Arnaldo Alcívar organized his community to build their local bridge, “La Mocora”.
Five months pregnant, Frida Alcívar fell into the river she was trying to cross with her
husband Arnaldo in a raft made of bamboo. Arnaldo fought the current to save his wife
and unborn daughter. They were left gasping for breath and with the understanding
that the Los Ángeles community, in the rural outskirts of Portoviejo, Ecuador, needed
a bridge. Arnaldo vowed to build it.
Resources were limited. Every year, the precarious footbridge that Arnaldo built out
of bamboo and wood from the hillside would be swept away by the river’s strong
current during the rainy winter. And year after year, this dedicated father would
collect just enough money to re-construct it in the summer.
“The river is a life-line and a nightmare
for us.”
Arnaldo Alcívar
Every day people from the La Mocora community, on the other side of the river,
cross to go to town while the majority of the people from Los Ángeles work in the
fields in the hills for the yearly harvest. “The river is a life-line and a nightmare for
us,” he said referring to the rainy winter season when the water rises so high as to literally knock on the Alcívar family’s front door, nearly 500 meters from the river’s edge.
When Walter approached the people of Los Ángeles with the idea of building a sturdy,
safe bridge using Toni el Suizo’s model, Arnaldo and Frida led the campaign and became
the community contacts. In order to buy the necessary cement, the people organized
fund-raisers and bingo games with the La Mocora community.
Today, their daughter is 15 years old and the community’s bridge, “La Mocora”,
has been built with the help of some 50 volunteers.
Tenaris 15
360 Degrees of Hope
By Toni el Suizo Ruttimann
During these past 20 years I carried a spark inside: an unyielding hope to help people in
need, and lessen their suffering. Day by day, step by step. It’s an attempt to contribute to
that better world I wish to live in.
The quality and durability of the bridges have significantly increased in the past few
years: in Cambodia, Vietnam and also Ecuador we have already used completely new
steel pipe donated by Tenaris, checkered steel plate for the bridge floor, and galvanized
wire rope from the Swiss mountain cableways and chair lifts. It’s a huge difference from
what we used to call the “puentes de chatarra” (bridges made of scrap).
It never ceases to amaze me that these bridges were actually invented with poor
Ecuadorian peasants in the Amazon basin, and with scrap pipe and wire rope no one
had any use for. Those peasants may never know it, but their effort has ended up helping
so far 800,000 poor peasants in 11 countries, making their harsh lives a little easier.
More than 800,000 people have
benefited from Toni's bridgebuilding
movement worldwide.
Tenaris 17
But not only peasants have been touched by this magical tale of bridges. It has involved
company managers and workers, military generals and footsoldiers, Prime Ministers
and humble public servants. It has touched families and schoolchildren. It worked in
the Amazon jungles, in the Andes mountains, at the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. Such
bridges were built with peasants, with slum dwellers in cities, with fishermen and lumberjacks, with guerrillas in Colombia, with former enemies on the El SalvadorHonduras border, with ex-revolutionaries in Nicaragua, with refugees in Chiapas, with
ex-Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and veteran Vietcong fighters in Vietnam.
Toni with a completed bridge, outside
Portoviejo, Ecuador.
Bridges were built with those called damnificados, with the poorest and least educated. It
worked with people considered totally unqualified to build their own bridge. And yet, until
today they have built 360 of them. Without a single serious accident or death to deplore. No
fighting, no politics, no profit - simply bridges for everyone to cross. People building their
own piece of liberty, people lifting up their own dignity.
And the story continues today, stronger than ever. In the year 2007, with Walter in
Latin America and Yin Sopul in Cambodia, we hope to build another 70 bridges with
tubes donated by Tenaris and flat steel donated by Ternium. These bridges will help
another 100,000 people in Latin America and Asia.
“ In the disaster area at the foot of the Andes Mountains, it took me just one
night sitting beside a river to understand the importance of a bridge. What
I felt in those long hours is what too many people must endure every day,
cut off behind raging rivers, unable to get to a doctor, to walk to the next
village, in anguish and helpless. The answer is a bridge, a simple bridge.”
Toni el Suizo Ruttimann
La Bocana del Bua, Ecuador. 85.97 m.
2,000 people served.
Puente Internacional, Honduras - El Salvador.
137.01 m. 15,000 people served.
Ateno 1, Mexico. 32.82 m.
1,000 people served.
Cau Luong Phu, Vietnam. 52.60 m.
2,500 people served.
Chour Krout, Cambodia. 92.53 m.
3,900 people served.
Barrio Ferroviaria, Argentina. 78.60 m.
3,000 people served.
Tenaris 19
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