Bridge building with Toni Rüttimann and rural communities of Myanmar

Two years ago I went to see two bridges in Honduras. They were simple pedestrian bridges, one of which had been built to replace an important bridge destroyed by a hurricane and the other to connect a remote village to better services. The bridges were by no means famous and just locating them took a fair amount of research, not to mention the time it took to actually reach the remote locations. Yet I went to see those bridges because they were part of one of the most incredible stories I’ve ever heard of people selflessly helping other people. Little did I know then that two years later these visits would lead me to meeting the man behind the bridges and the story: Toni Rüttimann.

Toni Rüttimann is a Swiss bridge builder who has no company or NGO, receives no salary, and does no fundraising – and yet he has managed to build more than 830 suspension bridges serving 2.2 million people in 13 countries. Thanks to the article I wrote about those two bridges in Honduras, I was asked to write a research paper about Toni, who then invited me to Myanmar, one of three countries where he and his local partners are building bridges today. In Myanmar I saw and learned how cooperation and trust between motivated communities, private companies, dedicated individuals, generous friends and local governments has made these 830 bridges possible.

Becoming a bridge builder in the jungle

Toni’s path to bridge building began in 1987 when he was just 19 years old. That year there was a major earthquake in Ecuador and seeing the images of destruction on television made Toni want to help somehow. Immediately after finishing high school Toni traveled to Ecuador, even though he had no local contacts or plan for what he was actually going to do. After meeting a Dutch engineer, Toni ended up building a bridge together with one local community. He then returned home to Switzerland to study civil engineering – but after seven weeks he quit and went back to Ecuador, where he continued to build bridges for another 10 years.

Initially Toni knew anything about building bridges, but he learned, out there in the jungles of Ecuador. On top of the technical aspects of bridge building, he also had to learn how to live and work in remote locations and without Western comforts. His first partner was Jesús, an illiterate Ecuadorian who cleared fields for peasants in the jungle and who taught Toni such essential skills as how to use a machete and to walk in the jungle. In the jungle Toni learned to live a simple lifestyle constantly on the road from one village to another, not asking for much and sleeping in local’s houses, schools, police stations, or where ever the locals could put him up.

Toni also had to learn to work with limited resources and practically no money. The local villagers were willing to provide free labour and whatever materials they could gather, such as wood for bridge decks and stones for foundations. The challenge was finding structural materials, for which Toni turned to the local oil companies, begging them for old pipes and cables or even for permission to scrape leftover cement from storage silos. He had to go over and over again before these companies eventually gave him something, probably because they felt sorry for him. Commitment of time and learning to be patient was essential.

After 10 years in Ecuador Toni moved on to Central America and eventually Southeast Asia. 32 years later and with more than 830 bridges completed by December 2019, Toni and his local colleagues are still actively building bridges in Myanmar, Indonesia and Ecuador today. The way Toni builds bridges today is different from when he first started, but it would not be possible without his commitment in those early years in the jungle.

Turning donated waste materials into prefabrictaed bridge elements

During the first four years in Ecuador Toni only built seven bridges, but even that was a great achievement considering the lack of resources. Eventually – when Toni had more results to show – finding materials started to get easier. Over time he has developed relationships with private companies that are willing to donate their leftover steel for bridge building, knowing that Toni puts the material to good use.

Since 2005, Toni has received used cables from cable cars and ski lifts in the Swiss mountains where strict regulations force cable car owners to change cables on a regular basis. Also since 2005, steel pipes are donated by the company Tenaris, whose multiple factories around the world save their leftover pipes for the bridges. Previously, the bridge decks were built with wood sourced by the villagers, but today steel plates are used. In Ecuador the steel plates are donated by the respective Provincial Public Works Department, while the bridges in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos have been built with steel plates donated by Ternium, a sister company of Tenaris. The exception is Indonesia, where importing steel plates is not allowed and they are instead bought locally using a gift from a Swiss man who added Toni to his will after seeing his story on television. The donating companies also pay for the shipping of the steel, and incredibly they ask for nothing in return, not even a simple plague at the bridge, because seeing the results and Toni’s personal commitment is enough.

The time Toni previously spent looking for steel is now spent on organizing transport logistics and taking care of import procedures for all the steel. Local governments do their best to help him, seeing the impact he is having. Once the steel arrives in Ecuador, Myanmar or Indonesia, it is taken to a special welding yard, and Toni knows at all time how much materials there is available in each country’s welding yard.

At the welding yard there is a team of 4-5 stationary welders that turn the steel into prefabricated bridge elements. For each bridge the welders put together a bridge kit, consisting of standardized frame elements and floor plates that are the same for all bridges, as well as the towers, anchors and cables that need to be specially made for each bridge according to a design produced by the Bridge Information System that Toni has developed over the years. Precision is key, as even a small error can lead to huge delays during the assembly, and the welders do their work with perfection – even if they have never seen a completed bridge in real life.

Toni Rüttimann’s right-hand men

Today Toni is working in three countries simultaneously, which wouldn’t be possible without his right-hand man in each country. These right-hand men are locals who have worked side by side with Toni for years until they have become as skilled at bridge building as he is. Today much of the work on the ground is done by these right-hand men, who are supported by Toni via e-mail and phone. This gives Toni more time to focus on taking care of import procedures and communications and makes it possible to build more bridges.

Toni’s first right-hand man was Jesús in Ecuador, where he later met Walter who still continues to build bridges in Ecuador and is Toni’s longest serving right-hand man. Walter even followed Toni to Central America, but later when Toni moved on to South East Asia he found other local partners. It is crucial that these partners are locals, who speak the local language, who know how to work in the local conditions, and who remain in the country and hence can help with bridge maintenance even years later. Most crucially, Toni’s right-hand men have to have the right character: to be able to lead and to be as dedicated to bridge building as Toni is. In addition to Walter, the right-hand men Toni is working with today are Aiklian in Myanmar and Suntana in Indonesia.

The right-hand men spend most of their time on the road, traveling from one bridge site to another and visiting each site at least three times. The first job of the right-hand man is to visit a proposed bridge site and assess the needs of the community that has asked for a bridge. On the same visit the right-hand man also assesses the community’s willingness to work, as well as the technical feasibility of building a bridge at the site. If the bridge is determined possible, the right-hand man sends the topography measurements to Toni, who then produces a design using the Bridge Information System and sends it to the welders. Once the bridge kit has been welded and delivered to the site, the right-hand man then visits the site a second time to concrete the foundations for the towers and anchor blocks together with the villagers.

Once the foundations have cured, it is time for the right-hand man to visit the site again for the final assembly. Thanks to his extensive experience, Walter in Ecuador also does this step together with the villagers and without Toni. Aiklian and Suntana can also do assemblies of small bridges without Toni, but a few times a year Toni still travels to Indonesia and to Myanmar to assemble a string of 6-7 already cemented bridges together with Aiklian or Suntana.

Community effort and commitment

Toni Rüttimann didn’t become a bridge builder because he knew how to build bridges, but rather he learned how to build bridges because he saw the suffering of people without them. Bridges are needed to connect people to work opportunities and to services like hospitals and schools, and lack of bridges aggravates poverty. When the crossing is important, people find a way to cross even without a bridge, and often there is an existing locally built bridge or a raft with both options having their dangers.

One thing that hasn’t changed since Toni first became a bridge builder is that no bridges could be built without significant commitment from the future users of the bridge. The locals have to contribute both time and money, and only the communities that really need bridges would do all that is asked from them, rather than wait around for the government or an NGO to do it for them. Thanks to the contribution of the villagers, Toni and his local colleagues can focus on the work the locals can’t do and hence build more bridges and help more people.

There is always a leader from the community who takes on the responsibility of organizing the locals, usually from several villages. The community has to do all the labour for free, from digging and cementing foundations to the final assembly, and at least 80 locals need to show up on the days of cementing and final assembly. The locals also need to find all the sand, gravel and stones needed for the foundations, either by gathering them from the surroundings or buying them. The community also needs to buy all the cement needed for the foundations and pay for the transportation of the bridge kit from the welding yard. As bridges serve a lot of people and several villages participate, many families can come together to buy even one bag of cement with everyone contributing according to their abilities. The steel structure may catch the eye, but in terms of weight, the materials contributed by the villagers are around 95% of the whole bridge!

The day of final assembly

Another aspect that hasn’t changed much since Toni first started building bridges is the design of the bridges. The bridges are fairly basic suspension bridges, with two main cables spanning across, supported by steel pipe towers and attached to steel pipe anchors. The bridge deck is resting on steel pipe frames that are hanging from the main cables with hanger cables. One thing that changed when Toni moved from Latin America to Southeast Asia was that he started using steel plates for the bridge deck instead of wood. The longest bridge built by Toni and his partners to date has a span of 264 meters.

After all the background work – from steel imports to welding and from site surveys to cementing – the final assembly of the steel elements takes only a day or two. I was lucky enough to get the chance to witness the assembly of two bridges in Myanmar. When I arrived the towers were already up as Aiklian had cemented the foundations some weeks before with the villagers. The steel frames and plates were ready at the site and freshly painted. And the villagers were also at the site, waiting for instructions from Toni and Aiklian. The two immediately set to work, having done it all many times before and knowing how to get the work done quickly but without errors or accidents.

The first step is the splicing of the main cables, followed by attaching the cables to the anchors and pulling them over the towers and across to the other side. Next comes the preparation of the frames and hanger cables. Cutting the hanger cables is a job that needs to be done with extreme accuracy, with each cable having a slightly different length, and this is a job Toni always prefers to do himself. The villagers then attach the hanger cables to the frames and place the frames in order in preparation for the assembly.

Finally, the assembly of the frames starts. Toni and Aiklian take positions on a wooden plank up the main cables, ready to fix the hanger cables to the main cables using wire clips. One by one the hangers are attached, with the villagers below bringing the frame elements, attaching them together, and bolting the floor plates onto the frames. By late afternoon all the frames are attached. Last comes the placing of the side cables, but by then the villagers have already started taking their first steps on the bridge. After all the work, they are the true owners of the bridge.

The bridge building network behind Toni Rüttimann

In recent years Toni and his local colleagues have been building some 40-50 bridges per year. There is no need to have an NGO behind all this, when there is a chain of individuals where everyone does what they can and trusts each other. Toni thinks his contribution is small compared to all the hard work done by the villagers. Likewise, the villagers think their contribution of cement and labour is small compared to the steel elements which they would not be able to acquire without help.

With everyone doing what they can, the cost of the bridge becomes only a fraction of what it would cost the government or an NGO to build. Hence, money – needed for things like bus tickets and tools – becomes only a small part of the system, and this part is covered by gifts from generous friends in Switzerland. One generous woman has even offered to pay salaries to the welders and right-hand men. There is no need for Toni to spend time doing fundraising, and more bridges can be built with the same small resources. And most importantly, the work doesn’t just stop because of lack of money.

For Toni Rüttimann bridge building is a lifestyle and he asks for nothing in return, refusing even awards as meaningless. Most of the last 32 years he has spent without a home, going from village to village and country to country, carrying everything he needed in two bags. Only in the last few years he has managed to settle down and start a family in Thailand, thanks to his right-hand men doing most of the work on the ground. Toni and his colleagues are all getting tired and it is unsure if bridge building will continue much longer. But with 2.2 million people served, no one can argue with the impact that has been created when committing oneself fully to one task: bridge building.