Tales of BridgebuildersThe dream began in Ecuador

In the winter, the water under this bridge outside Portoviejo, Ecuador rises 20 meters.

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The South American country’s climate and dramatic topography make safe, sturdy bridges a necessity for the campesinos.

Ecuador: The Birth of a Dream

The Republic of Ecuador straddles the Equator and is one of the most geographicallyand ecologically diverse countries in South America. This is where Toni Ruttimann,known as Toni el Suizo in Latin America, arrived in 1987 with only a bag and the will tohelp victims of an earthquake. Almost twenty years later, more than 150 safe pedestrianbridges have been built and more than 238,000 people around the country have benefited.

Why are bridges so important? Ecuador is susceptible to a variety of natural hazardssuch as frequent earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic activity. During rainy wintermonths, the coastal basin swells and often causes flooding in both rural and urban areas.And in 1998, the El Niño Southern Oscillation Phenomenon pushed Ecuador into one ofits worst economic crises, causing US$ 3 billion in damages, especially to infrastructure.

One victim of the 1998 natural disaster was the aqueduct that supplies Manabí’s capitalcity Portoviejo with water. Alongside the provincial government, Toni and his right-handman, Walter Yánez, built their one and only water-pipeline bridge, restoring water to200,000 users within 12 days.

Ecuador has become Toni’s second homeland. “My dream was born in the AmazonJungle. The dream of building bridges with and for the poor. The Ecuadorian campesinoshave inspired what now has become an invisible network of friends- a movement thathas spread to countries around the world,” he says.

PERU

COLOMBIA

Pacific Ocean

PICHINCHA23 BRIDGES

ESMERALDAS7 BRIDGES

IMBABURA1 BRIDGE SUCUMBÍOS

18 BRIDGES

FCO ORELLANA1 BRIDGE

CARCHI4 BRIDGES

CHIMBORAZO5 BRIDGES

AZUAY2 BRIDGES

BOLIVAR6 BRIDGES

LOS RIOS1 BRIDGE

COTOPAXI17 BRIDGES

MANABÍ48 BRIDGES

LOJA22 BRIDGES

ECUADOR

Toni and Walter Yánez, some ten years ago in Ecuador.

Seeing on TV the devastation the 1987 earthquake had left in Ecuador, nineteen year-oldToni Ruttimann boarded a plane in his native Switzerland the very morning after hegraduated from high school. He carried some savings and small donations from neighborsin his mountain valley.

Once in the disaster area, Toni soon realized how he could best aid the Ecuadorian damnificados, many of whom were left isolated when the raging rivers swept away thebridges connecting them with local schools, hospitals, roads and marketplaces. With scarce materials, the technical guidance of a Dutch engineer and the campesinos’willpower, Toni built his first footbridge.

After six months, Toni returned to Switzerland and began his university studies in civilengineering, a five-year program. After only six weeks he resigned, determined to givehis life to help the poor.

Back in Ecuador, living with the campesinos in the jungle, he invented a way of buildingsuspension bridges for free, by hand and on their own: the campesinos would do the excava-tions, carry sand and stone from the river for the bridge’s foundation, bring wood from theforest for the bridge floor. Toni el Suizo, as the peasants named him, started asking nearbyoil companies for their used drilling cable, their scrapped steel pipes and leftover cement.

Slowly and carefully, one bridge followed another, with lengths of 30 meters up to 260meters. During his fifth year he was joined by Walter Yánez, who would become Toniel Suizo’s right-hand man.

The villagers even in very secluded communities got word of these two bridgebuilderswho worked with the poor. Soon, requests for new bridges multiplied. Today, Walterand Toni are never without work.

To Build a Bridge

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Toni developed a software system to remotelycontrol bridgebuilding activities around theworld, assure perfection in the engineering ofeach bridge, and show the origin and usage of all materials implemented. Every bridge hasits own page in the system with information available in a variety of languages.

According to Toni’s method, which he calls KISS (Keep It Simple & Safe), it takes onlya few steps to build a medium-size 50-meter community bridge: Survey (1 hour), exca-vations and accumulation of sand and stone (2-4 days), cementations (1-3 days), finalbridge assembly (1-2 days). On every occasion, it takes some 40 people. And if theydon’t show, there’s no bridge.

In 1998, after 11 years and 99 bridges in Ecuador and Colombia, Toni and Walter rushedto help in Honduras, devastated by hurricane Mitch. There, and also in Nicaragua and Costa Rica, they built 51 bridges aiding more than 100,000 people. One of themwas the first bi-national bridge in the bridgebuilder’s history, spanning the Rio Lempabetween El Salvador and Honduras.

8.332 m1.995 m689.2 kg

Fixed168.3 mm22.19 m

2.9980.1682.9980.1681.663

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TOWER SUB

Contact NameContact TitleContact Tel.

CountryProvinceCantonParishCommunityBridge NameAccess byDirections to bridge

EcuadorLojaPaltaLourdesTarapalEl MacanchePickup 4x4Catacocha, coamine, tarapal

PIPE MARKS

Element (m)Qty

7.995

0.017 0.168 0.0171.6420.168 0.017 0.168 0.0171.6420.168 0.424 0.168 0.4241.6420.168

MAIN ANCHORSTOWER LEFT

HeightWidthWeight kg

TypePipe dia.

Total Pipe

7.632 m1.995 m589.5 kg

Fixed168.3 mm18.98 m

HeightWidthWeight kg

TypePipe dia.

Total Pipe

2.5 m2.827 m527.3 kg

Pi168.3 mm16.98 m

HeightWidthWeight kg

TypePipe dia.

Total Pipe

TOWER RIGHT

Vertical:

5.4630.1681.663

PIPE MARKS

7.295Vertical:

1222

1.9957.9951.6420.180

CB TopVerticalCrossbeamPlinth

Element (m)Qty1212

1.9957.2951.6420.180

CB TopVerticalCrossbeamPlinth

Element (m)Qty244

2.8272.1630.420

CB TopVerticalPlinth

EL MACANCHE - PALTA - LOJA(x) (y)

-30.00-20.00-10.00

0.000.000.00

80.0089.00

102.00114.00119.00

0.000.000.000.000.17

-8.000.005.507.489.20

10.30

TOPOGRAPHYGround Left 3Ground Left 2Ground Left 1Tower LeftFloor LeftFC Level / HW LevelFloor RightTower RightGround Right 1Ground Right 2Ground Right 3

River Side

ID 253LOCATION

CONTACTS

NOTES

-3.00

-2.00

-1.00

0.00

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

7.00

-3.00

-2.00

-1.00

0.00

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

7.00

0.00

0.20

0.40

0.60

0.80

1.00

0.00

1.00

2.00

3.00

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Some forty volunteers are needed to build a community bridge.

In 2001, Toni and Walter moved on to Mexico where they built 28 bridges using mate-rials donated by Tenaris, the first collaboration between Toni and the company.

Even facing supply and customs difficulties, Toni never slowed down. After meeting a Cambodian refugee during a trip to Switzerland, the bridgebuilders took a great leapforward by splitting up: Toni would work mainly in Asia, Walter in Latin America.

Toni finds opportunities even in the face of serious obstacles. In 2002, the bridgebuildercontracted Guillan-Barré Syndrome in Cambodia, an illness that left him paralyzedfrom the head down. During the two years that he underwent rehabilitation inThailand’s Sirindhorn Center, el Suizo developed a software system to remote-controlthe engineering and logistics of any bridge anywhere.

From his hospital bed and later from his wheelchair, Toni coordinated construction withWalter in Ecuador and Yin Sopul, his Khmer co-worker in Cambodia. The system allowedhim to control quality and logistics from any place on Earth.

They would upload bridge site measurements and then download detailed instructions inany internet cafe along their route. Even though he did not have control of his body, Toniwas in control of the bridges, and so his two friends built 54 bridges without his presence.

Darwin Toledo and his family on their community bridge outside Santo Domingo de los Colorados.

Getting Across the RiverToni’s bridges impact the lives of the campesinos in Latin America and Asia. The story of Darwin Toledo and his family is just one example.

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During the winter, Darwin Toledo’s family had to risk their lives in a precarious canoeto cross the river that separated them from their crop fields, the local school and therecreational club. “Many lives were lost trying to get across,” Toledo remembers.

So that his children would not miss classes, Darwin’s wife, like many other neighbors,would spend weeks at the local club on the other side of the river.

In the rural outskirts of Santo Domingo, Ecuador, the safest alternative to crossing the river meant traveling 20 kilometers…on foot.

For generations, the locals dreamed of building a bridge but they lacked sufficientfunds and manpower for the initiative. When the community met with Walter Yánez,Toni’s right-hand man, in 2004, the decision was unanimous. “Immediately, everyone sup-ported the idea of building the bridge ourselves,” says Toledo.

The municipality donated gravel. The entire community got together to buy the sandand cement. They cut trees from the hillside and created boards to serve as the floor ofthe bridge. And some fifty members of the community worked on the bridge’s construction.The work was tough. The men had to carry the steel tubes for the towers and thencement their base under the summer sun.

Although working on the bridge often meant missing a day of work, there was alwaysan abundance of volunteers. “In a few weeks, we had the bridge we had waited forduring decades,” he concludes.

Before the bridge, my wife and childrenhad to spend entire weeks sleepingat a club on the other side of theriver so that my kids wouldn’t missclass.”

Darwin Toledo

“

Members of the San Agustín de las Vacas community in Ecuador work diligently to hang the cables for their bridge.

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Toni el Suizo approached Tenaris for the first time in 2001. It marked the beginning of a relationship that continues today.

A Common Cause

Before meeting a group of Tenaris engineers, Toni would build bridges with discardedmaterials and steel tubes, leftovers from oil operations.

One day in 2001, the bridgebuilder decided to visit Tenaris’s tubular products mill inMexico and ask if they had any to spare. The company provided him with enough products to build 28 solid and secure bridges throughout the state of Veracruz, whichhas served some 30,000 people in rural communities.

When Toni decided to make the leap to Asia, he again went to Tenaris for tubes. In 2005,he used this donation to build more than 70 bridges in Ecuador, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Toni wrote about Tenaris’s donations in an online article. “There are no inaugurations or plaques above the bridges. No stamping their global brand on our shirts. Maybe this is becausethey can see my dream. For more than 100 thousand poor people, who have never heard the Tenaris name and probably never will, their generous act speaks the language of hope.”

Today, the relationship between Toni and Tenaris goes from strength to strength. Thecompany has donated another 185.4 tons of brand new tubes for some 70 bridges thatwill be constructed throughout 2007 in different Latin American and Asian countries.What’s more, Ternium, a leading supplier of flat and long steel products in the LatinAmerican market and Tenaris’s associate company, has donated 157.2 tons of flat steelfor 50 bridges in the same locations.

Walter Yánez (in red) carries on the bridgebuilding tradition in Ecuador while Toni works in Asia.

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Walter Yánez has played an important role in the growth of the bridgebuilders movement throughout Latin America.

Toni’s Right-Hand Man

While Toni lay paralyzed by Guillan-Barré Syndrome in Cambodia, his fellow bridgebuilderWalter Yánez was facing a great challenge in Mexico. Working with Toni via internetand phone, he built twenty-six bridges in one year alongside the Veracruz campesinos.

When he was about to begin construction of the last four bridges near the town of Córdoba,some local engineers paid him a visit. “This Ecuadorian is crazy,” they said after visiting thesite of the new bridges. “He claims he will build this 70-meter bridge in one month.”

“Can call me crazy,” countered Walter, “but I’m going to build four of them before Ileave.” And so he did.

When Walter met Toni el Suizo, he was working in a missionary high school teaching weldingin the oil town of Lago Agrio in the Amazon region. In the beginning he helped Toni withwelding at night and on the weekends. Years later he finally decided to join Toni full-time.

With the salary that comes from the donations Toni receives, Walter provides for hisfamily. Before his son started school, Walter’s family would accompany him when heworked with the communities.

Today, Walter is Toni’s partner in Ecuador. Stopping at internet cafés to access the bridgebuilding system, Walter stays in constant contact with Toni, making sure the movement continues to thrive in Latin America while Toni works in Asia.

Arnaldo Alcívar organized his community to build their local bridge, “La Mocora”.

A Promise FulfilledAfter nearly losing his wife and unborn daughter to the river’s currents,Arnaldo Alcívar promised to build a bridge to unite two communities.

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Five months pregnant, Frida Alcívar fell into the river she was trying to cross with herhusband Arnaldo in a raft made of bamboo. Arnaldo fought the current to save his wifeand unborn daughter. They were left gasping for breath and with the understandingthat the Los Ángeles community, in the rural outskirts of Portoviejo, Ecuador, neededa bridge. Arnaldo vowed to build it.

Resources were limited. Every year, the precarious footbridge that Arnaldo built out of bamboo and wood from the hillside would be swept away by the river’s strongcurrent during the rainy winter. And year after year, this dedicated father wouldcollect just enough money to re-construct it in the summer.

Every day people from the La Mocora community, on the other side of the river,cross to go to town while the majority of the people from Los Ángeles work in thefields in the hills for the yearly harvest. “The river is a life-line and a nightmare forus,” he said referring to the rainy winter season when the water rises so high as to lite-rally knock on the Alcívar family’s front door, nearly 500 meters from the river’s edge.

When Walter approached the people of Los Ángeles with the idea of building a sturdy,safe bridge using Toni el Suizo’s model, Arnaldo and Frida led the campaign and becamethe community contacts. In order to buy the necessary cement, the people organizedfund-raisers and bingo games with the La Mocora community.

Today, their daughter is 15 years old and the community’s bridge, “La Mocora”,has been built with the help of some 50 volunteers.

The river is a life-line and a nightmarefor us.”

Arnaldo Alcívar

“

More than 800,000 people have benefited from Toni's bridgebuilding movement worldwide.

By Toni el Suizo Ruttimann

360 Degrees of Hope

During these past 20 years I carried a spark inside: an unyielding hope to help people inneed, and lessen their suffering. Day by day, step by step. It’s an attempt to contribute tothat better world I wish to live in.

The quality and durability of the bridges have significantly increased in the past fewyears: in Cambodia, Vietnam and also Ecuador we have already used completely newsteel pipe donated by Tenaris, checkered steel plate for the bridge floor, and galvanizedwire rope from the Swiss mountain cableways and chair lifts. It’s a huge difference fromwhat we used to call the “puentes de chatarra” (bridges made of scrap).

It never ceases to amaze me that these bridges were actually invented with poorEcuadorian peasants in the Amazon basin, and with scrap pipe and wire rope no onehad any use for. Those peasants may never know it, but their effort has ended up helpingso far 800,000 poor peasants in 11 countries, making their harsh lives a little easier.

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But not only peasants have been touched by this magical tale of bridges. It has involvedcompany managers and workers, military generals and footsoldiers, Prime Ministersand humble public servants. It has touched families and schoolchildren. It worked inthe Amazon jungles, in the Andes mountains, at the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. Suchbridges were built with peasants, with slum dwellers in cities, with fishermen and lum-berjacks, with guerrillas in Colombia, with former enemies on the El Salvador-Honduras border, with ex-revolutionaries in Nicaragua, with refugees in Chiapas, withex-Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and veteran Vietcong fighters in Vietnam.

Bridges were built with those called damnificados, with the poorest and least educated. Itworked with people considered totally unqualified to build their own bridge. And yet, untiltoday they have built 360 of them. Without a single serious accident or death to deplore. Nofighting, no politics, no profit - simply bridges for everyone to cross. People building theirown piece of liberty, people lifting up their own dignity.

And the story continues today, stronger than ever. In the year 2007, with Walter inLatin America and Yin Sopul in Cambodia, we hope to build another 70 bridges withtubes donated by Tenaris and flat steel donated by Ternium. These bridges will helpanother 100,000 people in Latin America and Asia.

Toni with a completed bridge, outsidePortoviejo, Ecuador.

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“ In the disaster area at the foot of the Andes Mountains, it took me just onenight sitting beside a river to understand the importance of a bridge. WhatI felt in those long hours is what too many people must endure every day,cut off behind raging rivers, unable to get to a doctor, to walk to the nextvillage, in anguish and helpless. The answer is a bridge, a simple bridge.”

Toni el Suizo Ruttimann

Puente Internacional, Honduras - El Salvador.137.01 m. 15,000 people served.

Ateno 1, Mexico. 32.82 m. 1,000 people served.

La Bocana del Bua, Ecuador. 85.97 m. 2,000 people served.

Chour Krout, Cambodia. 92.53 m. 3,900 people served.

Barrio Ferroviaria, Argentina. 78.60 m. 3,000 people served.

Cau Luong Phu, Vietnam. 52.60 m. 2,500 people served.

www.tenaris.com