USU students win bridge building competition

A team of students from the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Utah State University placed first in the regional steel bridge building competition held in Ft. Collins, Colorado.

The self-selected design team members are senior-level engineering students at Utah State. The students are also members of the Utah State student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

This year’s team members include Spencer Tressler, Jake Sharp, Mark Wilson, Dan Luke, Tyler Mertlich, Lindsey Jennings, Ben Seaman and Greg Jolley. Faculty advisors for the bridge project are Paul Barr and Marvin Halling.

Utah State won awards for construction speed, efficiency and economy, and first place for its bridge design at the regional competition.

“This is a great group of students,” said Halling. “We expect them to do well at the national competition.”

The Utah State teams have placed first in the regional competition six out of the past 10 years but have yet to claim the crown for the best bridge design in the nation. Utah State placed fourth at a previous national competition; the team hopes to better that mark this year.

The regional competition included schools from the Intermountain West region including Utah State, University of Utah, Brigham Young University, University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado State University, Colorado School of Mines, U.S. Air Force Academy, Metro State University (Denver), South Dakota Tech, University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University.

The first place award of $1,000 will be used toward expenses for the national competition in Golden, Colo., to be held May 28 and 29.

USU Bridge Building team includes, left to right Ken Jewkes, Jacob Sharp, Spencer Tressler, Tyler Mertlich, Ben Seaman, Greg Jolley, Mark Willson, and in front is Marvin Halling.