Bridge progress update: Nyarusange and Ngoma
Good news! Just as I promised, I’m back to share updates on the construction of Nyarusange and Ngoma bridges – the two projects you made possible with your year-end giving! (Just in case you missed my previous story of Nyarusange, you can see it HERE).
Building bridges during a global pandemic continues to be challenging, with different changes to adapt to every week. Keeping our sites safe and COVID-19 free is our top priority and our track-record of safety has permitted Bridges to Prosperity to keep building, even if at a slower pace due to all the precautions that need to be taken.
In addition to safety considerations, this pandemic has also presented other types of logistical challenges due to lockdowns, a term that we have all become familiar within the last 365 days.
On Tuesday, January 19th, the city of Kigali entered into a strict three-week-long lockdown to fight the spread of COVID-19 during the global ‘second wave’. The measure was effective and the trend of new cases in Rwanda is now rapidly reducing. It is worth saying that last month the Lowy Institute assessed 98 countries on their national Covid-19 response and ranked Rwanda 6th best in the world!
One of our One-Bridge projects, Nyarusange, is situated in one of the districts of Kigali City, and for that reason, the lockdown meant that we had to stop work on-site for the entirety of the three weeks in compliance with local regulations and to ensure the safety of our staff. This delay made us even more eager to go back to work to finish the bridge. Thankfully, we returned to site on Monday, February 8th, and have been working tirelessly since then.
Nyarusange Suspended Bridge photos
The other One-Bridge project, Ngoma, is located in the Muhanga district so its construction schedule was not affected by the lockdown, and it is now close to completion! (More on the completion of both bridges to come in March. Stay tuned to your email for updates).
Regardless of where our bridges are located, our teams must continue to navigate the additional steps of requesting and obtaining inter-district travel clearances in order to mobilize workers and construction material, keeping sites safe and protected during lockdown, and ensuring that all workers always have, and are appropriately using, upgraded personal protective equipment. If you’d like to read more about our measures to keep our workers and communities safe during our builds, I encourage you to refer back to this great blog post from my colleague, Alex McNeill, written this past June.
Ngoma Suspended Bridge photos
I hope this update will serve you to get excited about the proximity of the completion of both of these beautiful and impactful bridges, as well as help you understand some of the additional challenges that our operations team has faced during this tough period, all to ensure the bridges are completed as soon as possible. I am personally extremely grateful to work with all of the incredible professionals here at B2P including our construction, engineering, procurement, finance, and partnerships & government relations teams and many more individuals that keep working tirelessly to positively impact the lives of others. I will leave you with some photos of the bridges as they are right now, and look forward to sharing in celebration with you when they are both finished and open to the public.
Cheers,
Nicola Turrini
Rwanda Engineering Manager
Bridges to Prosperity
