Changes

The steel bridges we build are roughly 19 to 21-feet long. Many dimensional constraints and assembly guidelines apply to the bridge’s design and assembly strategy, though these are only revealed in the competition mailers once teams are registered. One such example was a river flowing through the center of the construction site, forcing teams to assemble their bridges on either side of the river and having both ends meet in the middle. Once assembled, the bridges are then loaded with a specified loading pattern both laterally and vertically, and deflections are recorded at various locations along the span to determine the bridge’s efficiency. A highly complex undertaking, we have overcome adversity to compete the last two years. In the 2017-2018 season, our team is excited to learn from our past and create our best steel bridge yet!

The Canadian National Steel Bridge Competition is a newly created competition, where universities from all over Canada compete by attempting to build efficient steel bridges. The final bridges are ranked on multiple criteria, including speed of assembly, architectural design, weight, and deflection.