• September 28, 2022

    UAF Steel Bridge Team Places 2nd at Nationals

    Over the years, PacTrans has been a strong supporter of our consortium partner universities’ student competition teams. This past year, a team from the University of Alaska Fairbanks took second place in the 2022 Student Steel Bridge Competition finals, the best showing for UAF in more than a quarter century.

    The annual competition is co-organized by the American Institute of Steel Construction and the American Society of Civil Engineering. They use a variety of criteria (construction speed, lightness, aesthetic, stiffness, cost estimate, economy, and efficiency) to judge student teams on their efforts to design and build a unique steel bridge. 

    This year, the three person building team constructed UAF’s bridge in 5 minutes, 20 seconds, while taking third place in the categories of aesthetics, lightness and construction economy. Those scores helped UAF claim second place overall in a field of 38 teams at the finals, finishing behind only the defending champions from the University of Florida.

    “We were just overjoyed,” said team captain Ben VanderHart. “We knew we had something special this year.”

    Along with VanderHart, team members participating in the finals included Branden Hansen, Zach Miller, Lucas Gomes, Haylie Cortez, Jenna Hernandez and Madelin Weeks. Wilhelm Muench, an instructor at UAF’s College of Engineering and Mines, was the team advisor.