News | Project Updates
2025 Bridges to Prosperity: Karuruma Trail Bridge Completed
Thornton Tomasetti
Key Takeaways
- Bridge Completion - Thornton Tomasetti and Bridges to Prosperity completed a 60-meter Karuruma Trail Bridge in Rwanda ahead of schedule, inaugurated on May 29, 2025, providing safe crossing over the flood-prone Akaruruma River.
- Community Impact - The bridge serves over 5,600 beneficiaries across five communities in Rwanda’s Kamonyi District, connecting them to essential services like hospitals, schools, and markets, reducing risks from dangerous river crossings.
- Ongoing Partnership - Since 2016, Thornton Tomasetti has collaborated with Bridges to Prosperity, contributing to seven bridges in Panama and Rwanda, connecting over 22,200 people to vital resources.
In May of 2025, Thornton Tomasetti made our annual trip abroad to construct a trail bridge with Bridges to Prosperity. Alongside a local team, our firm sent 11 employees to build a 60-meter suspended bridge spanning the Akaruruma River.
About the community
The Akaruruma river is often flooded during the rainy season and dangerous to cross. The members of the communities surrounding the bridge were risking their lives to reach the other shore. In the past three years, multiple people were injured due to the unsafe river crossing.
About the bridge
The 60-meter Karuruma Trail Bridge was successfully completed ahead of schedule and inaugurated on May 29, 2025.
Transformative change
The Karuruma Trail Bridge now serves 5 communities with over 5,600 beneficiaries in the rural Kamonyi District in the Southern Province of Rwanda, connecting these communities to the nearest hospital, government services, markets and schools. This crossing now provides safe access for individuals who were once putting their lives in jeopardy to seek opportunity.
Why trail bridges?
Trail bridges link resources and services to the people who benefit from them the most, serving as a single intervention that addresses a myriad of symptoms. Safe, reliable access impacts day-to-day behavior and influences long-term decision-making. Connecting rural communities is a cost effective, efficient tool for improving livelihoods and well-being.
Since 2012, hundreds of bridges have been built in partnership with local partners, also thanks to the program launched by Bridges to Prosperity in 2019, which aims to connect communities across Rwanda through a partnership with the Ministries of Infrastructure, Finance, and Economic Planning, and Local Government, with the common goal of providing connection for over 1,100,000 residents thanks to the construction of more than 300 bridges by 2027. Bridges to Prosperity’s current efforts are centered in East Africa and include other program countries.
Source: Bridges to Prosperity’s 2025 Karuruma Impact Report
About Thornton Tomasetti + Bridges to Prosperity
Thornton Tomasetti has supported Bridges to Prosperity with building bridges to better lives since 2016, sending more than 55 volunteers to work with the B2P construction team to connect over 22,200 people to what matters most. Our involvement has resulted in seven new bridges spread throughout Panama and Rwanda.
Working on the Bridges to Prosperity (B2P) project was an amazing experience that I will always remember. It was wonderful to see my team connect with the residents, the workers at a nearby coffee washing station, and the children who visited the construction site daily to watch us build the bridge. Even with the language barrier, we found ways to connect.