This year, the Central Connecticut State University Steel Bridge team, nicknamed The Steelers, is in its fifth year of participating in the American Institute of Steel Construction and American Society of Civil Engineers Steel Bridge Competition. The team is a joint venture between students in the senior design class, and the American Society of Civil Engineers club. During the first semester, the design and analysis of the bridge is performed by the team. Once the design is completed and checked to make sure it is structural sound, the second semester starts the fabrication and construction of the bridge. During the second semester, QSR Steel Corporation fabricated the bridge, while the team practices constructing it.
2018 Bridge Design
Each team member designed a basic shape for the bridge. Both truss and deck bridges were designed, but at the end, the deck bridge shown below was ultimately chosen. This was due to the easy fabrication and construction of the bridge.
The stringer can be easily broken down into 2 symmetrical members which will make fabrication and construction easy. Fabricators would need to construct eight of the end sections, and sixteen of the middle sections for the entire bridge. This makes it incredibly efficient to fabricate. For construction, parts will simply fasten together at joints. Each member will not need to be labeled since each section is the same. This will reduce construction time spent locating the correct member needed.