How rock demolition with Bosch equipment helped residents and Engineers Without Borders volunteers clear the way for a street that will improve living conditions and unite the residents of a small community in El Salvador

 

 

 

Read the Full Case Study with All Images - View PDF 

The Need

San Pedro Puxtla is a town of about 8,500, located in western El Salvador, approximately 10 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean.  On the southern edge of the town lies Las Pilitas, a poor neighborhood of about 140 residents.With no connecting street, Las Pilitas is virtually cut off from the rest of the town, especially during the rainy season, limiting access to health care and other services.  To make matters worse, the neighborhood is situated near a former landfill, and standing water puts residents at increased risk for disease.

Monica Suber, a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer based in San Pedro Puxtla, contacted Engineers Without Borders™ USA (EWB-USA), a non-profit humanitarian organization that helps developing communities worldwide with their engineering needs.  The EWB-USA Central Ohio Professionals chapter, based in Columbus, Ohio, responded and made their first site assessment in September of 2008.  The team developed preliminary plans for a cost-effective street and drainage system, approximately 120 meters long, to be built primarily with local materials and labor performed by the Las Pilitas residents.

“Once the street is completed, the 32 families who live in the marginalized community of Las Pilitas will no longer be isolated,” Suber said.  “Where they were once completely cut off for half the year, social and economic opportunities will finally become available to them.  The social impact of being connected year-round with relatives and friends, as well as other people and resources in the larger community, is important to the well-being of the families in Las Pilitas.

“In addition,” added Suber, “a road will improve access to heath care facilities in San Pedro Puxtla and help eliminate favorable conditions for the reproduction of mosquitoes that cause malaria, dengue and other potentially grave mosquito-born illnesses.”

Continue reading "PAVING THE WAY TO A BETTER LIFE" »

Posted by Jay A. at 03:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Recently I joined a great community workshop, www.ColumbusIdeaFoundry.com, to collaborate on some different projects, meet interesting people and learn some new stuff. One of the ideas being bounced around as a collaborative effort with the www.thefusefactory.org was a Power Tool Drag Race. I am happy to say the event has come together and hopefully it will draw a nice crowd, be a ton of fun and build awareness for these two great organizations.

Most of you have probably heard about Power Tool Drag Racing before, there have been a few events on the west coast, plenty of youtube videos, news stories and other coverage of these events. On Saturday June 20^th there will be an all day event in Columbus to build and race your own power tool drag racers.

This event has an optional workshop early in the day if you are interested in learning to build a racer and don’t feel comfortable doing it on your own. All building materials will be available although you are also encouraged to bring your own power tool, wheels and style elements. The actual race will start at 4:00 pm and open to everyone as spectators or racers. Racers need to register before but spectators can just show up. Check out this website for more info:  www.PowerToolDragRacesColumbus.com     

Stepping up as the main event sponsor Ohio Power Tool jumped in to supply power tool prize packages for the winners, materials for the tracks, advertising and other materials needed for the event. If your company is interested in also sponsoring the event I know they are open to more sponsors.  

  

Posted by Jay A. at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

 

Engineers Without Borders is a non-profit humanitarian organization established to partner with developing communities worldwide in order to improve their quality of life. This partnership involves the implementation of sustainable engineering projects, while involving and training internationally responsible engineers and engineering students.

The Central Ohio Chapter of Engineers Without Borders is currently working on a project in San Pedro Puxtla, El Salvador where the goal is to build a road in the El Amel neighborhood. Currently the path where the road will go has some issues it is littered with large boulders, on a steep grade and is constantly flooded during the rainy season cutting off access to the rest of the city. A very basic road would improve the lives of these people tremendously.

The problem however is in this remote location it is pretty much impossible to get the large construction equipment to the construction site. Explosives are out of the questions with peoples homes as close as 6 feet away from some of these large boulders.

Working with Ohio Power Tool on the problem, the best option would be to drill holes in the rocks along a strait line and split the pieces off using several techniques depending on boulders size. Typically a pneumatic rock drill would be used for such an application but would require a large trailer type compressor which again would not be able to reach the job site, even if one could be found to rent in the surrounding area. A much better solution is the Atlas Copco Power Pack hydraulic unit which is more reliable, more powerful and significantly more compact. The unit is small enough to fit in the bed of any truck or SUV and the cart design makes it easy to maneuver around any obstacles. The Atlas Copco LHD 23 M rock drill works perfectly with the Ajax Carbide Drill Bits used in the testing.

Step one was to test the different tools and techniques on smaller rocks here in Columbus. The local Channel 10 CBS Station (see video) and Columbus Dispatch were both on hand for the testing. The next step will be to get all the equipment and people to El Salvador and remove all these boulders within one week’s time. If you are interested in supporting the project in any way please contact Amanda with EWB.

Posted by Jay A. at 01:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)