Meeting/Activity Calendar

Steel Bridge

Concrete Canoe

Surveying

Technical Paper

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Steel Bridge

The Student Steel Bridge Competition, sponsored by ASCE and the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC), is an event in which teams of college students design, fabricate, and construct a scale size steel bridge. The bridge design ideas may come only from team members, but students may consult faculty or other professionals for advice. After design is complete, students must fabricate their design; while students are encouraged to fabricate the bridge entirely on their own, a commercial fabricator may be used if appropriate facilities are not available. After all the pieces are fabricated, teams put them together to form the finished bridge. Finally, teams compete at a regional and national level and their bridges are rated in many different categories, including stiffness (deflection), lightness, construction speed, display (aesthetics), efficiency, economy, and overall best. The economy category is based on construction time and the number of builders. The economy score is calculated by multiplying the construction time by the number of builders by a specified dollar amount. Efficiency is a function of the bridge weight and aggregate deflection. The weight and deflection are multiplied by a dollar amount and summed. Finally, overall performance is calculated by summing the economy and efficiency scores; the team with the lowest overall dollar amount wins the competition. The rules are changed annually to improve competition and ensure that teams design and build new bridges.

Below are some pictures from the 2011-2012 competition at University of Alaska:

 

 

 

See below for results and pictures from the 2007 - 2008 UI Student Steel Bridge Team. Team members include Christopher Horgan, Jared Bauder, Matt Hardman, James Richards, Chris Bowers, Logan Negnerbon, Dave Sherman, and Timothy Bishop. The team placed third at regionals, which qualified them to compete at the 2008 National Student Steel Bridge Competition held at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida.

2007 - 2008 UI Student Steel Bridge Results
Category	Regional Results (out of 16)	Nationals Results (out of 42)
Construction Speed	4th	22nd
Lightness	5th	24th
Stiffness	4th	25th
Display	3rd	17th
Economy	6th	21st
Efficiency	3rd	23rd
Overall	3rd	20th

 

 

See below for results and pictures from the 2006 - 2007 UI Student Steel Bridge Team. Team members include Cort Anderson, Christopher Horgan, Alexander Mockos, Brian Hansen, Dirk Hendricks, Jared Barr, Jared Bauder, Peter Degner, and Kristyn Scott. The team placed third at regionals, which qualified them to compete at the 2007 National Student Steel Bridge Competition held at the California State University Northridge in Northridge, California.

 

 

 

University of Idaho ASCE Student Chapter: Steel Bridge