No bridge mending at Canterbury University

Published by the Communications and Development Department

 

6 October 2004

 

More than 100 civil engineering students at the University of Canterbury will be building bridges across the River Avon on Friday with the aim of having them collapse into the water.

 

The annual bridge breaking competition, which has a cash prize pool of $2,000, accounts for 25 percent of the students’ final mark for a 2nd year engineering design course grade.

 

The students will be split into groups of four or five people. Each group will have six hours to design and construct a bridge capable of carrying no more than two people. The groups will have succeeded if their bridges collapse after the addition of a third person.

 

The annual event is a novel means of testing the students’ knowledge of power-to-weight ratio. In the past it has drawn audiences of more than a thousand people.

 

It is being held outside the University of Canterbury Students Association complex from 2pm, Friday 8 October.

 

 

For further information please contact:

Tiffany Palmer
021 127 7145
Tpp16@student.canterbury.ac.nz