Modular Footbridges of Guadua Angustifolia Kunth

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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 the lack of adequate road infrastructure. Most of this problem is due to economic issues and lack of attention from governments. Moreover, the Guaduaangustifolia Kunth (Guadua-a.) is a bamboo that grows in most of the Americas. This material has a resistance – weight ratio similar to structural steel also presenting additional benefits such as soil stabilization, flow regulation, and a high CO2 fixation rate to the ground. In addition the Guadua-a. growth cycle spans from 3 to 5 years. All of these makes the Guadua-a. in highly renewable material. This paper presents an alternative for the construction of Guadua-a. structural modules for pedestrian bridges, 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-a. in the area, and establishing an industrialized cultivation of it, to enable them to have enough material for maintenance and replacement of sections as necessary. A numerical structural analysis was performed to determine the maximum possible span under load specifications from Colombian bridge building code. The results shows that a bridge up to 21m of span can be constructed using the module. The span can be increased drastically when the module is combined with wire-cable or an arc shaped configuration, however, the module was assessed to be used in straight truss bridges because this setting carries the largest loads on the elements. Real scale load tests were conducted on a full scale physical model of the module, the structural elements and the connection between the modules.