A Real-Time Bridge Construction Update

Most of you know that my updates on the Las Flores bridge construction project are posted months after each construction phase has occurred. Today, I thought I'd give a quick real-time update, for those who have been following this project and praying for us throughout the whole, long process.

Although we anticipated having to stop construction once the rainy season started in May, the work has, in fact, continued to progress. Using sandbag-walled dams, channels to direct the river flow away from the area under construction, and lots of prayer, the work has continued on the support piers located down in the riverbed. During one especially heavy overnight downpour, one of the dam walls was breached, and the next morning the crew had to work on repairing the walls, pumping out the water, and drying out materials and equipment that had been submerged. Below are a few random shots of work progressing below water level - and although this is a real-time update, these photos aren't that recent, they're just ones from the past couple of months.

The menfolk are doing another concrete pour today, and Allen tells me that this might be the last one until after the rainy season. I found this table, of average monthly rainfall in Tegucigalpa (the capital of Honduras), where the weather is fairly similar to our weather in Lempira. The table clearly shows our funny double-dip rainy season, with exceptionally high rainfall the first two months - May and June - a slightly lower rainfall for the next two months, and then another two months of high amounts of rain in September and October.

I thought I'd also mention our plans for the months when we can't be working on the Las Flores bridge project. (What's that you say? Take a breather? Riiiiight. Guess you don't know Allen if you thought that was gonna happen!) Allen and I have been working hard to finalize the blueprints for the house we'll be building for our family up here on our property. Once we've finished planning the house, we hope to start in on that exciting construction project, during the months when the men can't work in the river.

Oh, and one other interesting tidbit. You might remember the construction on the bridge in Paca-someplace (I still don't know how to spell the name of that village - here are links to the two posts about that project: The Bridge Project in Paca-someplace and Bridge Construction Update from Paca-someplace). Well, that bridge hasn't yet been completed. We didn't have all of the cables needed to complete that bridge, until the shipping container arrived before Christmas this past year. With the scramble to work on the Las Flores bridge during the dry season there hasn't yet been a chance to head over to Paca-someplace and string the cables there. Finally, with the Las Flores bridge reaching a temporary stopping point, work can resume on the Paca-someplace bridge.

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Ooops - here's an update: no pour at Las Flores today. Too many of the local volunteers were drunk or hung over after a big political rally this weekend, so there weren't enough workers to do the job today. The pour has been rescheduled for tomorrow. Sigh.