Students engineer bridge win

By Liam Eagle

You know when you walk into the Architecture Building on Church Street and television crews from CTV and CityTV beat you there, something’s gotta be up.

Damn right. We’re bustin’ bridges, baby.

On Feb. 18, architecture and civil engineering students gathered for the destructo part of the school’s third annual bridge building competition.

A week earlier, teams had seven hours to build bridges out of popsicle sticks, dental floss and white glue.

The event started with a packed house and an energetic crowd, as the two programs dusted off there halfhearted rivalry — booing each other and greeting the breaking of each bridge with a loud “oh.”

The bridges were judged by a point-system: 60 per cent for strength, 25 per cent for aesthetics, 15 per cent for originality and 10 per cent for guessing the breaking point.

This year, Patent Pending, a team of civil engineering students, won the competition. Their design proved the strongest, holding 325 kilograms of weight before the 0.866-kilogram bridge collapsed. Civil engineering has won the competition all three years.

“It’s been said before, architects build a pretty bridge, engineers build a strong bridge, and that’s the way it’s happened every year,” said Patent Pending team member Denis McCann, a fan of Fudgesicles.

The group, made up of fourth-year students McCann, Marko Dzeletovich, James Eagleson, Sasha Torresen and Chris Preweda won $150 and will advance to the national championships Monday at Concordia University.