page_title: Toni Rüttimann
section_title: Supply chain
hierarchical_section_title: Toni Rüttimann / Supply chain
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Cavi donati dalle funivie svizzere.
context_page_description: Toni Rüttimann, is a Swiss bridge builder who works in Southeast Asia and in Latin America, where he is known as Toni el Suizo.
  Toni Rüttimann works independently alongside communities in need, using recycled materials and charging no fees.
  Companies contribute by donating their used material and local governments concede permits and help with transportation in recognition of the fact that the main effort is made by the population. No one asks for anything in return and the bridge belongs to the population who built it.
  The bridges are for use of pedestrians, pack animals, motorcycles, two-wheel-tractors – but not for cars.
  In every country where Toni works, he builds up a small team of national welders and looks for one “bridge-building partner”, to whom he teaches his craft, and who in turn is able to perform maintenance duties on the bridges built.
  Toni has no home residence: he carries everything he needs in two bags. One for his personal belongings, the other for his laptop computer and a few tools for his trade.
  In collaboration with local communities, he has built 760 bridges which serve two million people.
context_section_description: Since 2005 Tenaris, the world’s largest producer of seamless steel pipe, has donated the pipes for the bridges Toni builds across the world – scrap and surplus pipes, sometimes even new – from their mills in Italy, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Indonesia, including the long distance ocean freight to final destination.
  For an improved bridge deck made of steel, starting in 2004, checkered steel plates were contributed: in Vietnam and in Ecuador by the provincial governments, in Laos and Myanmar by the Argentinean mill of  Ternium, one of Latin America’s principal steel producers.
  Also in 2005, Toni begins using wire rope from the mountain cable cars of his home country. In Switzerland, the cable cars are required to change these cables frequently, due to the tight safety regulations imposed by the government.
  This way Toni receives cables of several kilometres in length, large diameter and good quality.
  Not all bridges built by Toni are still in service. In several places, especially in Ecuador and Cambodia, they have been replaced by vehicular bridges built by the government. In other places they have been rendered ugly due to the lack of maintenance, or even destroyed by natural disasters, as occurred in 2008 in the Páez River valley in Colombia.
  Toni always works with local colleagues, so that interested communities can ask for their help for replacement of wire rope or other important repairs.
  At present there have been no accidents of any significance during the construction of these bridges.  This is mainly attributable to the fact that local people are used to heavy labour and that strict safety rules and procedures have been followed during prefabrication and construction.
caption: Wire rope donated by the Swiss cable cars
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