University of Dayton - MyLife

UD Steel Bridge

Once again, the University of Dayton steel bridge team is working hard to prepare for the annual steel bridge competition. The regional competition (Ohio Valley Student Conference) will be held at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, KY. We have a strong steel bridge team this year, and I think our bridge will perform very well. Hopefully, we will advance to the national competition for the second year in a row. Nationals are in Las Vegas this year!

The team spent last semester designing and analyzing our bridge as well as producing drawings for the steel fabricators. Mound Steel Technologies in Springboro, Ohio, assists us in the fabrication of our bridge this year. The guys at Mound were especially helpful this year in getting our bridge done quickly while maintaining quality. The quick fabrication was greatly assisted by the 3-D AutoCAD drawings produced by our team.

We have already started practicing assembly of the bridge, which is unusually early for us. This practice will tremendously improve our construction speed and efficiency. Our bridge will soon be painted a nice UD blue. No matter how we do in the competition, steel bridge is a lot of fun and a great way to learn more about engineering design and construction.

Mar 2, 2009 12:04 AM Permalink