April 09, 2001

WKU Repeats As Steel Bridge Construction Champion

Bowling Green, Ky. - Steel bridges built by Western Kentucky University engineering students finished first and third this weekend in the Ohio Valley Regional competition.

With its second straight regional title, Western advances to national competition May 25-26 at Clemson University in South Carolina.

"Between the concrete canoe and the steel bridge, WKU civil engineering students are doing well," said Greg Mills, civil engineering professor and team adviser. "All their hard work is paying off."

The low-profile, three-dimensional truss bridge designed and built by Western students won the competition Saturday at Ohio State University. Cincinnati finished second and another Western bridge was third. Western bridges also won first place for aesthetics and structural efficiency.

Other regional competitors included Ohio State, Kentucky and Dayton.
Bridges are judged on aesthetics, stiffness, construction speed, weight, construction economy, structural efficiency and overall performance. The bridges must be 23 feet long with a 13 feet span, 2 feet high with 1½ feet clearance and 3 ½ feet wide and must support 2,500 pounds.

"The level of competition increased dramatically this year," Mills said. "Raising the bar competitively makes everyone's expectations higher."

Mills expects Western's bridge design to fare well in the national competition. Western finished 38th in the nation last year in its first entry in the event.

Next year, Western will be the host school for both the Ohio Valley steel bridge and concrete canoe contests on the same weekend, Mills said.

The steel bridge competition is sponsored by the American Institute of Steel Construction and the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Team members (all seniors) are Jerod Kaufman of Kenai, Alaska, Aaron Terry of Elizabethtown, Lucas Slavey of Somerset, Ryan Pregel of Gallatin, Tenn., Scott Tucker of Florence, Jason Collins of Columbia and Shawn Herman of Bowling Green.

For more information, contact Greg Mills at (270) 745-5850. More WKU news is available on the World Wide Web at www.wku.edu. If you'd like to receive WKU news via E-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.