May 29, 2001

WKU Steel Bridge Team Finishes 27th In National Contest

Bowling Green, Ky. - A steel bridge designed and built by Western Kentucky University students finished eighth in aesthetics and 27th overall in last weekend's national competition.

Clemson, the host school, won the National Student Steel Bridge Competition followed by Florida and Louisiana-Lafayette. More than 400 civil engineering students from 43 schools participated in the Friday and Saturday event.

"We were pleased with our big move from 38th last year to 27th this year," said Greg Mills, civil engineering professor and team adviser.

Mills had hoped Western's low-profile, three-dimensional truss bridge would finish in the top 25 overall, but was pleased with top-25 finishes in four judging categories.

Western's bridge finished 24th in weight, 24th in stiffness, 25th in construction economy, 25th in structural efficiency and 29th in construction time. "It also was a nice accomplishment for our students to finish in the top 10 in aesthetics," Mills said.
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.

"We came back with plenty of good ideas for next year's competition," he said.
Making the trip to Clemson were seniors Ryan Pregel of Gallatin, Tenn., Jason Collins of Columbia, Aaron Terry of Elizabethtown, Shawn Herman of Bowling Green and junior Dan Haney of Fordsville.

Other competitors in the national contest included 2000 champion California State-Chico, Arkansas State, Columbia, George Washington, New Mexico State, Northwestern, Oregon State, Penn State, Southern Illinois-Carbondale, Texas A&M, Cincinnati, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, South Carolina, Texas, Wisconsin and West Virginia.

The steel bridge competition's primary sponsors are the American Institute of Steel Construction and the American Society of Civil Engineers. More information on the competition is available online at http://www.ce.clemson.edu/2001nssbc/

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.