Steel Bridge Team One of Top in the Nation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 20, 2005
Kathleen McPartland
530-898-4260
Jon Mohle, Civil Engineering
530-898-4628
Steel Bridge Team One of Top in the Nation
In their ninth consecutive trip to the national steel bridge competition, CSU, Chico’s steel bridge team placed 8th in a field of 45. The 45 bridges, winners of regional competitions, represent the best bridges from a pool of 200 civil engineering schools.
“Chico’s engineering students demonstrated once again why the perfect combination of education and hands-on training fosters the type of creativity needed to succeed in a competitive and fast-paced environment,” said Professor Jon Mohle, advisor to the team.
The winners are selected using real world considerations in structural efficiency and economy, and they are judged on total cost. The structural efficiency category is judged based on the weight and stiffness of the structure. These values are then translated to a material cost. The other major category is construction economy. This is the cost in labor needed to construct the bridge. The faster the bridge is assembled with as few people as possible, the better the economy. This makes the assembly of the bridge an exciting race to the finish!
Preparation for the competition began at the start of the 2004 fall semester, with Mohle, Department of Civil Engineering, as advisor. At that time, two design teams were formed, led by CSU, Chico students Jeremy Pierce and Kenny Blake. From the two designs produced by the teams, a bridge was selected for competition based on assembly time, structural performance and construction cost.
At the start of the 2005 spring semester, the build team-Jeff Rabo, Kenny Blake, L.S. Williams, Buddy Thomas, Chris Fritz, Tanner Micheli, Chin Leung and Jason Barnum-began the fabrication of the 22-foot steel structure. After qualifying for the national competition at the Mid-Pacific regional competition, several modifications were made to the bridge for faster construction and more efficient use of materials.
“Overall, we had a great assembly,” commented Jeff Rabo, team captain. “Our assembly time, at 7 minutes 2 seconds, was only 13 seconds slower than our fastest practice time. We made no construction errors, such as stepping in the water or dropping tools.” This assembly, together with an efficient structure, made the Chico team very competitive.
The Chico team is more motivated than ever to bring home a national championship next year, said Mohle. CSU, Chico took first place at the national competition in 2000.
Instructionally related activities at California State University, Chico, Granite Construction, and Culp & Tanner Structural Engineers helped fund the trip to the national competition.
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