Modular footbridges of bamboo (Guadua Angustifolia Kunth)

In South America, especially in the Andean region, many communities are isolated, and their development is limited due to the difficulties in communicating with urban areas, because there is no adequate road infrastructure. Most of this problem is due to economic issues and lack of attention from governments. Moreover, the Guadua Angustifolia Kunth is a bamboo that grows in much of the Americas. This material has a resistance –weight ratio similar of a structural steel as well as presenting a lot of benefits such as soil stabilization, regulation of flows, and a high rate of CO₂ fixation to the ground. In addition the Guadua Angustifolia can be exploited in just 3-5 years because its high-speed growth.

All of these makes the G. A. in highly renewable material. This paper presents an alternative for the construction of footbridges with Guadua Angustifolia structural modules, as a solution to the lack of infrastructure in village roads and even in suburban areas. In the proposed model, the bridge would be built by the community in a short time, taking advantage of existing Guadua in the area, and establishing a industrialized cultivation of it, to enable them to have enough material for maintenance and replacement of sections as necessary.

The bridge is designed for a span of 28 meters, which can be increased drastically when the module is combined with wire-cable or an arc shaped configuration. Load values specified by the Colombian Bridges Code have been used for the footbridge design. Real scale load tests were conducted on a specimen of the module, the structural elements and the connection between the modules.