Sadie Brackeen of Ridgefield participates in Steel Bridge Competition

Sadie Brackeen of Ridgefield participated in the Pacific Northwest Student Steel Bridge Competition in Vancouver, British Columbia, on April 6. She joined her team from Oregon Tech’s Civil Engineering program to compete in the contest and placed ninth out of 12 teams.

The Oregon Tech team included Brackeen, Daniel Duyvestein, Bryson Ladd, DJ Lopez, Serena Moha, Alejandro Quinonez and Aiden Shields.

Students in the competition designed, fabricated and constructed a structurally efficient 20-foot-long steel bridge to safely support 2,500 pounds, a school press release stated.

The Oregon Tech team’s bridge experienced a weld failure before it was fully loaded, but it ranked slightly higher in lightness and economy, the press release stated.

Civil Engineering professor and team advisor Dr. C.J. Riley said the team had a great build time compared with practice builds. Additionally, Riley used the travel time to continue teaching.

“We took a fantastic driving tour around Vancouver looking at various bridges, Stanley Park and the Low-Level Road Project, which won an Envision Platinum Sustainability Award. It had been discussed extensively during our CE405 Sustainability and Infrastructure course and it was awesome to see it in person,” Riley said in the press release.

To learn more about Oregon Tech’s Civil Engineering program, visit oit.edu/civil.