The Innovative Engineering for Safer Connectivity project

The Innovative Engineering for Safer Connectivity project aims to help rural communities in Tanzania have safer and more reliable physical routes to markets, schools and healthcare. It will do this by transferring Nepalese trail bridge knowledge and technology to Tanzanian engineers and local communities, giving over 21,000 people access to safer rural bridge crossings, as well as supporting skills and policy integration to enable the future scaling of safe transport infrastructure.  

In Tanzania, over 75% of the population live more than 2km from an all-weather road, with unreliable and unsafe river crossings causing death, loss of property, high transportation costs, increased food insecurity and reduced access to essential services. These problems are exacerbated by the more frequent and severe weather patterns caused by climate change. Conventionally constructed bridges are prohibitively expensive, while trail bridges are up to 10 times cheaper, are durable to 50 years, and require minimal maintenance.  

The Helvetas and TRAC4Change partnership, with support from local implementing partner Helvetas Tanzania, will adapt and transfer trail bridge expertise and technology gained in Nepal to communities in Tanzania, laying the groundwork for national scaling. 

Key activities for the project include: 

• Training 50 professionals, including government engineers, private sector practitioners and community bridge builders, in trail bridge design, construction and maintenance, with intense coaching for two years and gradual transition of responsibilities to the trained professionals in year three.  

• Constructing six training trail bridges, which will give more than 21,000 local people in rural areas wider and safer mobility. 

• Developing a trail bridge construction and management curriculum and manuals for Tanzanian higher education institutes, as well as a set of best-practice standards customized for the Tanzanian community context for long-term replicability. 

• Improving the quality of the steel bridge parts supply chain through guiding local makers and training government engineers.  

• Influencing local and national government to recognise and fund trail bridges as a scalable, cost-effective and vital element of national transport infrastructure. 

Improved rural transport is a key enabler of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The Innovative Engineering for Safer Connectivity project will help to improve the connectivity and safety of rural trails in Tanzania through demonstrable examples that build evidence for national scaling, and cultivating a skilled pool of engineers, community craftspeople, manufacturers and transport policymakers. If you would like to learn more about the Innovative Engineering for Safer Connectivity project, subscribe to our newsletter or contact our programme manager using the details below.