Lakehead U’s Civil Engineering Steel Bridge Takes New Approach at US National Competition

(Thunder Bay - May 31, 2006) After placing second overall at the American Institute of Steel Construction/American Society of Civil Engineers Mid-West Regional Student Steel Bridge Competition in March, Lakehead University's Civil Engineering Steel Bridge team went to Salt Lake City, Utah, with a new bridge design and a drive to succeed.

In competition at the 15^th Annual US National Student Steel Bridge Competition against 45 other university teams, Lakehead's team placed 5^th overall and took home 1^st place in the aesthetics category.

"This is an incredible accomplishment and a tribute to the fantastic work and dedication of the team," says Dr Tony Gillies, Faculty Advisor to the team and Chair of the Department of Civil Engineering at Lakehead U. "To have the team place above 40 other teams representing the best US universities, and have the best-looking bridge in the competition - it just makes me feel proud of our students, and it demonstrates the excellent calibre of both our faculty and civil engineering program."

The 15^th Annual AISC/ASCE US National Student Steel Bridge Competition was hosted by the University of Utah in Salt Lake City from May 26 to 27. For the National competition the team fabricated an entirely new bridge after the regional competition in an effort to be more competitive at the National level.

The goal of the competition is to design a 1/10 scale model for replacement of a century-old bridge that crosses an emergent wetland. The models, approximately 21 feet long, are erected under simulated field conditions and then load tested. The specification for the bridge changes from year to year, constantly challenging the engineering skills of Civil Engineering students from universities all over the United States and Canada. Not only does the event test the students' structural design capabilities, it also challenges them to fabricate and construct their design. The bridges are judged based on lightness, construction speed, stiffness (deflection), aesthetics, efficiency (combination of bridge weight and stiffness), and economy (combination of bridge weight and construction time - materials plus labour in a real bridge).

The bridge is designed and the components fabricated at the University by the students prior to the competition. At the competition, the spectators watch as the team assembles their bridge as quickly as possible. After construction, the assembled bridge is weighed to determine which is the lightest bridge in the competition, and then loaded using 100 25 lb lengths of angle iron to simulate a loaded truck crossing the bridge, with a total applied load of 2500 lbs (more than ten times the weight of the bridge). This tests the strength and stiffness. The placement of the loading was determined by two rolls of a dice. The team had to design their bridge by examining thirty-six possible load cases.

The Lakehead bridge weighed 206 lbs and was assembled in 7.5 minutes by the five student constructors. The bridge took 1st place for aesthetics, 14^th for assembly time, 11^th for construction economy, 3^rd for lightness and 3^rd for structural efficiency - placing 5^th overall.

The team is grateful for the support of the many local and national sponsors who made participation possible at the regional and national competitions. The team members are: Rick Brannan, Tyler Brake, Richard Gillies, Brett Halicki, Travis Fillier, Duane Odenbach, and Tom Lovric (regional team). The faculty advisors are Dr. Tony Gillies and Dr. Timo Tikka, both with the Faculty of Engineering at Lakehead U. Technologist support was provided by Conrad Hagstrom and Kailash Bhatia.