The bridge fabrication is complete! After spending lots of time in the shop over winter break and at the beginning of this semester, the team has finally finished the last welds and assembled the bridge. The site plan has also been laid out in the building and will be used by the team to practice construction techniques. Fabrication went as expected and minimal redesign was necessary throughout the process. In the next few weeks the team plans to load the bridge and simulate the competition. This will ensure that the bridge will perform optimally on competition day. Additionally, the bridge will be painted within the month as well as attaching the name plate. Overall the team is very pleased with the bridge and owes many thanks to machine shop head Joe Zanetti. Stay tuned to the results of the loading test and the painted bridge!

As the Fall semester came to a close, the full shipment of materials had arrived in the machine shop. Over the course of winter break, the team spent over three weeks working on the fabrication of the bridge. The first step was to cut all of the materials down to the size specified in our working drawings. Each piece was finished and filed down as to be able to interact with one another smoothly. The two bridge supports were first set in place, and then tack welded to maintain its position. The same process was completed with the truss members and the lateral bracing. Holes were drilled where necessary and checked to make sure they would adequately hold members together. It was crucial to ensure members were level and interacting as expected throughout the fabrication process. The final steps are to finish weld the bridge, and ensure that there were no mistakes made. Going forward we plan on testing the bridge, practicing the construction process, and making any improvements that we see fit.