Kudos: Lafayette places second in national steel bridge competition

Lafayette College’s steel bridge team placed second overall at this year’s national Student Steel Bridge Competition at Iowa State University and won first place in the Construction Economy category, taking home $6,000 in scholarship funds.

Sponsored by the American Institute of Steel Construction and the American Society of Civil Engineers, the competition on May 30 and 31 brought together skilled and highly competitive civil engineers representing 43 qualifying teams from colleges and universities across North America, among the more than 200 teams entering at the regional level. The University of Florida team took first place.

Lafayette’s team used an innovative means of construction, employing only two builders to assemble the 18-foot-long, 32-member bridge in just over six minutes, all from the shores of a 13-foot-long mock river that could not be entered or crossed, explains Steve Kurtz, bridge team adviser and associate professor of civil and environmental engineering.

The Lafayette construction technique consisted of first assembling a set of rapidly constructed temporary support beams, upon which the builders were able to assemble their bridge, upside down, while avoiding the barrier of the river.

“Nearing completion, the builders flipped their bridge right side up, enabling the rapid removal of the temporary support beams and drawing audible gasps from the audience,” Kurtz says. “With this technique, Lafayette assembled its bridge with the fewest number of person-minutes, taking first place in the Construction Economy category, one of the two major categories in the competition, along with Structural Efficiency.

“Though Lafayette bested University of Florida in Construction Economy, it was not enough to overcome Florida’s superiority in Structural Efficiency,” he adds. “This marked Florida’s fifth consecutive national championship, and they have not finished second since Lafayette’s back-to-back national championships in 2018 and 2019.”

Lafayette’s Class of 2025 steel bridge team members:
Eve Bertoni; Gabe Decker; Julia Greeley; Kathryn Wright; Luke Juhlin;
Noah Sternick; Peter Kawash; Sean Walshe; Zoe Ohl.