Mott MacDonald Canada x Weston & Sampson 2023 Bridges to Prosperity Blog

As the Team enters the final two weeks before travel to Rwanda for the bridge build, everyone is working on final preparations and planning.  For me, this past week has included going to a travel clinic to get all required vaccinations (Typhoid, Flu, & Tetanus), applying online for the Rwanda visa, reviewing my packing list, picking up some items to bring to the Ecole Primaire Nyarusange (primary school local to our accommodation), reviewing the bridge construction plans, and cramming in as much Kinyarwanda language studying as possible. We’ve had gear deliveries coming in for both teams with radios for communication, additional PPE, and the team t-shirts for the bridge inauguration.   To aid in communication with the local community members, we have a language practice call this week in addition to our logistics and communications call. These will be the last calls with B2P before heading to Rwanda. We are all excited and looking forward to building the bridge, experi...

The team has received confirmation on where we will be resting between build days. Our overnight accommodation for the build will be located near the city of Muhanga!  Muhanga is the fourth largest city in Rwanda and the capital and largest metropolitan area in the  district  of  Muhanga . Due to its geographical location, the city serves as the gateway to the west and south of the country. source: flickr.com - Muhanga The accommodation itself is a 30-minute drive from Muhanga, and will have cell signal, running water, and electricity.  The house  has 6 sleeping rooms in total; a dinning room and sitting room; 2 shower  rooms and 1 toilet inside the house. Nearby is a local school, grocery market and hospital.                                                                    ...

 The Weston & Sampson team includes 5 professionals from our New England offices:                                  Margaret McCarthy                 Valeria Segawa                 Bradley Randall                 Lee Roseburg                 Connor Golden We are thrilled to unveil the Banner that will be used for the Jabrio Bridge inauguration!   The team has been eagerly following the local’s communities progress on the site preparation work and we just received our Accommodations site.  We will be staying in Muhanga District, which is about a 30-minute drive on an ...

  Greetings! We are pleased to announce that our bridge site has been confirmed! We will be building the Jabiro bridge on the Miguramo river and serving nearby communities of 7,469 people!  The team will arrive on site on November 25th and are in full swing preparing for the trip!  The site is located in the southern province of Rwanda but very close to the western border. It is about a 2 hour drive West from the capital city of Kigali! It is also about half-way between Kigali and Lake Kivu - the lake on the western most edge of the country. To reach Lake Kivu from the Jabiro site would be another 2 hour drive.  Source: Bridges to Prosperity Source: Google Maps The site is quite mountainous, with a local school located at approximately 1630m elevation, and the river at approximately 1520m according to Google Maps! It will be directly serving the communities of Jabiro, Kibilizi, Ngororano, and Rwambariro nearby.  Source: FATMAP Initial construction works have beg...

  Hello All! We are excited to announce that we have gathered our full team and have successfully held our first joint call! Held at 7am Vancouver time, our team joined with blurry eyes but left energized after hearing the stories from our teammates and our host Arnold. The additional members of the team from Weston and Sampson are: Valeria Segawa - Engineer Lee Rosberg - Senior Project Manager Margaret McCarthy, PE - Vice President Connor Golden - Project Engineer Randall Bradley - Project Engineer We have narrowed our project down to two potential locations, both in the process of being approved! The map below shows the general area of the projects (starred). They are in the North West, near lake Kivu. Source: Google Maps In addition, a detailed look of the project bridge crossing was shared with us from the B2P team Source: B2P Shared Project Document The bridge is most likely going to be a suspended construction, crossing over the Mizingo River. We are looking forward to gettin...

Hello and welcome to the start of our team blog!  We are ecstatic to represent Mott MacDonald on this years build, and will be traveling to Rwanda in November to build a suspended footbridge for a local community in the Nyabihu region!   First of all, who are we? Our team consists of 5 Mott MacDonald staff:   Nick Franklin  Conor Mackle  Cham Kandanarachchi  Patrick Hamlin  And Omar Rahhal!   We will also be partnering with 5 other staff from another consulting firm, Weston and Sampson based out of Boston!    Thank you all for your support on our fundraising page so far, we have official hit $12k CAD! The team is happy to announce we have booked our flights and will begin the build on November 25th 2023, with completion on December 8th in Rwanda!    We are still confirming the exact project location, but Bridges to Prosperity is evaluating two potential sites, both in the Nyabihu municipality in the North West of Rwanda and a...