Parsons Safety Manager Helps Build Bridge That’s a Lifeline for Panamanian Village

Division safety manager Dan Hughes, along with 10 other Parsons team members, went to Panama to build a 47-meter bridge spanning a river. The bridge connects the approximately 200 residents of the remote village of Rio Grande to a bus to the nearest city.

For Hughes, who has also done humanitarian work in Haiti, the experience was both fulfilling and empowering.

“If you have any inkling to help people, just step up,” Hughes told his alma mater, Columbia Southern University. “It is a completely different perspective coming from the U.S. where we have all our basic needs at our fingertips than going into a place like Rio Grande, miles away from anything that even resembles an established community.”