Mhlathuze-Madwaleni, eSwatini
In 2020, the UIUC EIA Bridge Program chapter collaborated with the Rutgers Universities’ chapter on the Mhlathuze-Madwaleni Community Bridge Project in eSwatini. Together, the team from both chapters worked during the second half of the 2019-2020 school year to design a 51.9-meter long footbridge. The bridge will be constructed by EIA local staff once COVID permits to help local community members access resources and facilities safely during the wet season.
However, the project encountered various struggles. Our original project location was changed from Bolivia to eSwatini due to political protests in-country. A university chapter partner and most of our design team left due to the side effects of the pandemic. Left with a large and complex project to be completed with more than half of the team gone, stuck in quarantine, we had the choice of not continuing with review calls. Our team decided against it because even though we couldn’t travel, we knew there was so much to learn from the project.
Design Blueprint for our eSwatini Bridge
Through all the adversity we encountered, we took away significant lessons and experiences. In losing so many people that were supposed to work on the project, we, in turn, allowed our most passionate students to take on more responsibility and reap the benefits. Our travel team has become significantly more knowledgeable about footbridges and international infrastructure development through their research and planning. We developed leadership and critical soft skills from monthly review calls with EIA. It gave us direction amid COVID and the skills to be capable leaders in every scope of our life, noticing opportunities to transfer what we’ve learned to the future members of our club as well. We can look back on this footbridge project as one that changed us forever, knowing that even through a pandemic, we’re still able to come together and learn how to build a structural bridge that will help local community members in eSwatini.
