2016 SAICE-WC Bridge Building Competition

Description

The SAICE-WC Model Bridge Building Competition was held at Canal Walk on 7 May 2016. 30 teams of learners from 21 schools participated from across the greater Cape Town region. The competition has evolved over the years but fundamentally teams of three need to build a bridge with the materials provided that can span a set distance determined by the judges. The teams have rules they need to comply with regarding the method of construction and functional internal and external parameters that need to be met. They also have a limited amount of time to build the bridge and are not allowed assistance from their teachers, parents, or phones.

The event commenced with an excellent lecture by Evan Arendse of BEPSAconsulting engineers on the nature of structures, the current status of bridges and the future of them as grander projects are launched with advanced construction materials and political vision! There after the rules of the competition were explained and the learners enthusiastically got to work. This year the span to be achieved was 800mm while an additional limitation had been placed on the teams by the imposition of a height restriction of 150mm.

Many of the teams were new to the competition and came up with some new and novel bridge designs which had even the experienced structural engineers curious to know how they would perform. Teams were also encouraged to decorate their bridges and make them more interesting for the new “People’s Choice” award. This new award recognised the bridges, judged by the students themselves, to be the most interesting and attractive.

The schools who did not meet the functional requirements of the bridges were penalised an additional 10% of the bridges weight for every 10mm they transgressed the functional requirements. This had a hefty impact on the points scoring which is the sum of the aesthetics of the bridge as determined by the judges and the mass carried by the bridge divided by the mass of the bridge.