Building Better Bridges

Working on the winning entry are (clockwise from the left) Kevin Fitzpatrick '05, Jeremiah O'Neill '05, Stephen Bono '05, and Kyle DeLabar '05.

Students in an upper-level civil engineering course will compete in an intercollegiate contest to see who can create the best steel bridge model.

But before facing peers representing more than 200 colleges and universities around the world in the National Steel Bridge Competition, the students battled each other in December at Acopian Engineering Center. The morning and afternoon lab sections of Fundamentals of Structural Engineering each put together a two-span, 25- foot-long steel bridge, spanning a mock river, that they had designed.

Taught by Steve Kurtz, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, the students designed, cut, welded, drilled, and otherwise fabricated the steel bridge according to the rules of the national competition. When fabricating the bridge, no one was allowed to step in the mock river except the one team member designated as the "barge." To the greatest extent possible, each lab section kept its bridge secret over the eight weeks of design and construction.

Kyle DeLabar '05 (left), Susan Bowers '05, and Jeffrey Chittim '05 work quickly to assemble their bridge.

The winning civil engineering majors were senior Michelle DiMeglio, who also is pursuing a degree in English, and juniors Susan Bowers, Stephen Bono, Kyle DeLabar, Sandra Henning, Ron Manney, Michael Nilson, Matt Taverna, Kevin Fitzpatrick, Jeremiah O'Neill, Jeff Chittim, Cristin MacDonald, and Blaire Banagan.

In the national competition, the winning team will be the one that has created the lowest "cost" bridge that does not fail under a vertical load of 2,500 lbs. A bridge that is light and deflects very little under load has a low structural cost, which requires efficient design, explains Kurtz.

The team able to put its bridge together most quickly has the lowest construction cost. "Simplicity, elegance, and practical consideration for 'constructibility' result in low construction cost," says Kurtz.

Lafayette will compete in the regional competition hosted by Penn State in April, hoping to advance to the finals in May at Colorado School of Mines.