2010 Bridge Building Competition
About 180 civil and natural resources engineering students made a splash with their design skills recently in the ever-popular annual bridge building competition.
Held on the banks of the Avon River between University Drive and the UCSA building on 18 October, the event attracted a large crowd of spectators keen to see the students get their feet wet.
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The first professional year students worked in groups of five to design, construct and test a 4m long bridge made from a limited selection of materials and tools. The challenge was that the bridges had to be able to hold two people but be designed to break when a third person stood on it.
One student who made a splash was Brittany Challis (above). Her team’s bridge collapsed before anyone else could set foot on it.
The structural efficiency prize, sponsored by MiTek New Zealand Ltd, was won by Matthew Crighton, Dan Gray, Joseph Harris and Isobel McLernon, and the award for aesthetics, sponsored by STIC (Structural Timber Innovation Company), was won by Christina Bell, David Hopper, Duncan Keall, Samuel Rudge and Tom Worner.
The competition, which has been running since the 1980s, is part of the ENCI 211 – Design Studio 1 course.