pacific nw transportation consortium region 10 Pactrans

Congratulations are in order: the UW team claimed first place at the Pacific Northwest Regional Concrete Canoe competition, held the weekend of April 7-9 in Moscow, Idaho.

UW was represented by 32 team members composed of freshmen, sophomore, junior, and senior-level students under the lead of captains Kim Tsai and Kory Swabb. Competing against 13 teams from Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington, UW’s team had to show excellence in lightweight concrete design, project management, concrete construction, professional writing and presentation, and an overly exciting day of racing their concrete canoe on the Snake River at Chief Timothy Park, WA.

The canoe was named Edgewater in honor of the last remaining gasification plant in the U.S. at Gasworks Park, picking the historic name for what is known today as Wallingford. The artistic design of the 20 foot long and 196 pounds “light” canoe features an inlay of the colorful pipe system inspired by the industrial display at Gasworks Park on the inside, and a swarm of kites pulling the charcoal hull on the outside.

The technical highlight of this year’s canoe is beyond doubt the addition of post-tensioning to the lightweight concrete design — a first in UW’s long history of concrete canoes. Adding post tensioning to the delicate shell design required several innovations which the team achieved with outstanding success, creating the first concrete canoe showing no noticeable cracks even after a rough day of intense racing.

The biggest fun, however, remains the race day; and what a day it was!  Carefully gauging the competition, trying to identify the hardest contestants, making the last adjustments to the race strategy. Excitement took over as the men’s and women’s endurance races were clearly dominated by UW.  After 28 runs by 14 men’s teams and 14 women’s teams, UW’s women only got beat by our own men’s team; 26 competitors trailing behind.  The remaining day went similar till, at the final race, our team won a four length sprint race by a full length margin over any competitor — what a finish!

UW’s Concrete Canoe team won the regional competition through consistent good performance in all categories (technical paper, presentation, final product, and races) and will compete next at the ASCE National Concrete Canoe Competition in June 9-11 at the University of Texas at Tyler, TX.