UA Engineering Students Prepare for Steel Bridge and Concrete Canoe Competitions

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Do you think it is impossible to float a concrete canoe? Can you design and construct a replacement for a century-old bridge that spans a river and adjacent floodways?

Just ask engineering students from The University of Alabama who will be competing with more than 18 other colleges and universities in the American Society of Civil Engineers 2008 Southeast Student Conference. The ASCE competition will be held at the University of Central Florida and the Florida Institute of Technology March 28-29, and will include the Steel Bridge and Concrete Canoe competitions.

Teams participating in the inter-collegiate steel bridge competition will only have one chance Friday, March 28, to erect a bridge spanning 20 feet that supports a load of 2,500 pounds. The students will be judged on the time spent assembling the bridge, the overall weight of the structure and the maximum deflection of the bridge.

“This competition provides our students with design and construction planning experience, and an opportunity to learn fabrication procedure,” said Dr. Jim Richardson, associate professor of civil engineering and advisor of UA’s steel bridge team. “They get to see their paper and pencil design spring to life, and they get to wrestle with parts that do not fit together.”

The top three teams in the Southeast competition will be invited to compete in the National Student Steel Bridge Competition, sponsored by ASCE and the American Institute of Steel Construction.

On Saturday, March 29, UA students will prove that concrete can float as Bama Breeze, a 21-foot concrete vehicle, will set sail at Turkey Lake near the Florida Institute of Technology.

This 200-pound canoe is made up of a special mixture of concrete that allows for flotation. The mixture consists of Type III Portland cement, fly ash, lightweight sand, perlite, and K1 and K15 glass spheres. Three layers of the concrete mixture are needed to cover a mold that has been wrapped in plastic for preservation. A layer of fiberglass mesh is placed in between each layer to reinforce the structure.

“The most important aspect of the construction process concerns the concrete mixture,” explained James Hugh Kyzar, a member of UA’s concrete canoe team. “If the mix is not prepared correctly, the concrete may be heavy or weak, resulting in a canoe that will not float.”

After the concrete is poured, the canoe is sanded, stained and taken off the mold. Aesthetics, including the name of the canoe and the University, are added last.

The concrete canoe team will be judged on the presentation of the canoe, appearance, race performance and a technical paper.

UA civil engineering students preparing for the competitions are:

• Hannah Beatty, a senior from Shreveport, La.
• Jonathan Black, a graduate student from Fort Payne
• Kolton Burt, a senior from Vance
• Nick Crane, a senior from Tuscaloosa
• Ben Gravice, a sophomore from Tuscaloosa
• Andrew Harry, a senior from Andalusia
• Trey Henry, a senior from Newbern
• Matthew Hogan, a senior from Montgomery
• Derek Kelley, a junior from Tuscaloosa
• James Hugh Kyzar, a sophomore from Andalusia
• Eduin Martinez, a senior from Northport
• Robert Morriss, a senior from Montgomery
• Chris Sewell, a senior from Southside
• Jeremy Smithson, a senior from McCalla
• Frederick Wheeler, a sophomore from Tuscaloosa
• Mary Beth Wilkes, a senior from Andalusia
• Terrence Williamson, a senior from Gordo

Founded in 1852, the American Society of Civil Engineers represents more than 140,000 civil engineers worldwide and is America’s oldest national engineering society.

In 1837, The University of Alabama became one of the first five universities in the nation to offer engineering classes. Today, UA’s fully accredited College of Engineering has about 2,300 students and over 100 faculty. In the last seven years, students in the College have been named USA Today All-USA College Academic Team members, Goldwater scholars, Hollings scholars and Portz scholars.

Note: The engineering student teams will showcase the concrete canoe and steel bridge on Tuesday, March 25, at 2:30 p.m. in the Student Engineering Projects Building.