CCEE team to advance to final phase of historic timber bridge competition 

A team of five CCEE students — ranging from undergraduate to Ph.D. students — have advanced to Phase 3 of the Association for Preservation Technology (APT) Preservation Engineering Technical Committee (PETC) Student Timber Bridge Design-Build Competition. The group will present their work and assemble their bridge design at the APT Conference in Montreal, Quebec, in November. 

This year’s competition challenged teams to focus on a timber bridge similar to one that would have been constructed between 1840 and 1890, highlighting the intricacies of timber construction and the technologies used for their preservation. Teams were tasked with studying an existing timber bridge and designing a scale timber bridge of their own, evaluating the bridge’s structural performance, creating construction drawings and devising a preservation plan that would allow these structures to withstand the test of time. 

The CCEE team — which includes undergraduate students Anthony Rurka, Christoper Lee and Laney Hunt; Ph.D. student Taylor Brodbeck; and master’s student Hunter Bowman — selected the Bunker Hill Covered Bridge in Catawba County, North Carolina. The bridge was constructed in 1895 and restored in 1994.

The Bunker Hill Bridge is one of only two remaining covered bridges in North Carolina and is the world’s sole remaining example of General Herman Haupt’s 1839 patented “Improved Lattice Truss” design, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.

“With that [information] in mind, there was no way we could go with a different bridge,” said Bowman, who previously served as a captain of the CCEE American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) Student Steel Bridge team. “Our strategy has been to leverage our strengths while also venturing out of our comfort zones to learn some new things. We had to use some older manuals and codes for analysis, create a comprehensive preservation plan, and document the current status and design of the bridge — all of this combined into a Phase 2 report that the team is exceptionally proud of.”

It is the first time that CCEE students have participated in the competition. 

Bowman said he felt a mixture of “relief and excitement” when he found out the team had advanced to Phase 3.

“The team put a lot of work into this and I’m glad it paid off,” he said. “Being able to scale down the bridge and show off a piece of North Carolina history in Canada is an incredible opportunity.”

Bowman said the competition is also the perfect chance to leverage a broad range of expertise within the CCEE department, with aspects of environmental preservation, construction, and of course timber design.

“The AISC Steel Bridge Competition is fantastic and helps build leadership skills while also providing the opportunity for some more hands-on experience with structural design. This competition is extremely similar in that regard, but it also allows for a broader range of experiences to shine through. Instead of designing a 20-foot steel bridge, we analyze an existing one from the 19th century and scale it down.”