Ruiru Bridge Design
Format
SOECS Senior Project Demonstration
Faculty Mentor Name
Gary Litton
Abstract/Artist Statement
Nestled at the base of the Great Rift Valley escarpment in Kenya, the Ruiru community is fenced in by several streams, which during the rainy season can become quite hazardous. The result of these hazards has been the annual loss of various livestock, and tragically two human lives as well. The approach taken by KBD, Inc. was to begin gathering project site information from a completed feasibility report and to collaborate with professionals, professors, and local contacts to understand the project scope. The challenges faced due to this approach were many including severely slow response from Kenyan contacts, the omission of certain critical data including design codes and stone characteristic information, and the coordination of a project site which can only be imagined and not seen. Solutions to these challenges presented themselves by reverting to historically "tried-and-true" engineering techniques, using US design codes, and contacting multiple resources to ensure data was gathered. In the few cases wh~re data was consistently unavailable, such as with the hydrologic analysis, executive decisions were made by the design team based on available information. As a result, our project team has successfully designed a seventy-foot, single-lane, Roman-arch stone bridge which will equip the local residents with not only the economic and educational freedoms taken for granted in other communities, but it will also allow further economic expansion as stone houses will be able to be built on and tractors will be able to be used on the farmland. The bridge uses three arches: one main, central arch with an eight-foot radius and two, smaller arches with a three-foot radius. The base weight of the bridge is 235,000 kilograms and can support a load of three fifteen-ton trucks. The watershed of our project area is estimated to be 5.36 mi2 with a 500-year, 24-hour design storm producing 350 cfs flow. The total project cost is estimated to be $65,000 with a construction time line of 53 days. The enviromnental impacts ofthisproject are zero impact, and the economic restrictions will be removed allowing positive growth in the area. In conclusion, our design project has met and exceeded both project criteria and stakeholder desires.
Location
School of Engineering & Computer Science
Start Date
3-5-2008 2:00 PM
End Date
3-5-2008 3:30 PM
Ruiru Bridge Design
School of Engineering & Computer Science
Nestled at the base of the Great Rift Valley escarpment in Kenya, the Ruiru community is fenced in by several streams, which during the rainy season can become quite hazardous. The result of these hazards has been the annual loss of various livestock, and tragically two human lives as well. The approach taken by KBD, Inc. was to begin gathering project site information from a completed feasibility report and to collaborate with professionals, professors, and local contacts to understand the project scope. The challenges faced due to this approach were many including severely slow response from Kenyan contacts, the omission of certain critical data including design codes and stone characteristic information, and the coordination of a project site which can only be imagined and not seen. Solutions to these challenges presented themselves by reverting to historically "tried-and-true" engineering techniques, using US design codes, and contacting multiple resources to ensure data was gathered. In the few cases wh~re data was consistently unavailable, such as with the hydrologic analysis, executive decisions were made by the design team based on available information. As a result, our project team has successfully designed a seventy-foot, single-lane, Roman-arch stone bridge which will equip the local residents with not only the economic and educational freedoms taken for granted in other communities, but it will also allow further economic expansion as stone houses will be able to be built on and tractors will be able to be used on the farmland. The bridge uses three arches: one main, central arch with an eight-foot radius and two, smaller arches with a three-foot radius. The base weight of the bridge is 235,000 kilograms and can support a load of three fifteen-ton trucks. The watershed of our project area is estimated to be 5.36 mi2 with a 500-year, 24-hour design storm producing 350 cfs flow. The total project cost is estimated to be $65,000 with a construction time line of 53 days. The enviromnental impacts ofthisproject are zero impact, and the economic restrictions will be removed allowing positive growth in the area. In conclusion, our design project has met and exceeded both project criteria and stakeholder desires.