WKU News & Events

April 23, 2002

WKU Bridge Team Will Compete
In National Event

Bowling Green, Ky. - Western Kentucky University's steel bridge team will compete in the national contest after a successful appeal of a penalty assessed during regional competition.

Team adviser Greg Mills was notified Monday that the rules committee of the American Institute of Steel Construction, the competition's sponsor, had accepted Western's appeal and invited the team to the June 21-24 national event in Madison, Wis.

"I'm pleased that our students will be able to compete at nationals and see how this bridge fares with the best in the nation," said Mills, civil engineering professor.

The team was assessed a 200-pound weight penalty during the April 12 regional competition in Diddle Arena when one side of the bridge slid ¾-inch past the 9-inch abutment limit.

Bridge scores are tabulated on a total cost. The penalty, the only one assessed to Western in the competition, increased the overall cost of the bridge from $5.6 million to $10.7 million.

In his appeal, Mills said the $5.1 million penalty was too severe. The penalty WKU received was 100 times more severe than a penalty for touching the imaginary river or dropping the bridge into the river, he said.

The competition rules committee agreed. Western will join two other teams from the Ohio Valley region - Dayton and Cleveland State - at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"I'm very pleased that the American Institute of Steel Construction and the American Society of Civil Engineers are giving us a chance to compete at nationals," Mills said.'This bridge clearly is better than last year's which finished 25th in the nation. The students have worked hard and deserve the right to compete on a national level."

Members of the WKU student steel bridge team, all seniors, include: Dan Haney of Munster, Ind.; Danny Bratcher and Josh Miller of Bowling Green; Daniel Kirby of Alvaton; Larry Shelton of Owensboro; Aaron Talbot of Greenbrier, Tenn.

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.