Each year, Berkeley's student Steel Bridge Competition team comes up with a brand new design based on the ASCE-AISC Student Steel Bridge Competition rules released in August.
CALeidoscope, this year's bridge entry, is emerging out of that brand new design.
Fall
In the fall semester, Bridge's Design Team is on deck. Design Team members analyze and design Berkeley's entry for the 2016 competitions (the Mid-Pac regional in April, and hopefully, the National competition in May). The team cuts out any unnecessary steel and trussing while keeping the bridge as stiff as possible.
"We strive to be highly competitive by designing with fabrication and construction ease in mind," says Hayley Proctor, Bridge Project Manager.
Spring
And now it is spring and Bridge's Fabrication Team is up. Fabrication will bring CALeidoscope to life. Go into campus's Etcheverry and Davis Hall machine shops at any hour, and you will find Fabrication members as they cut, grind, machine, and weld everything together.
At Mid-Pac
And all the while Fabrication needs to finish early enough so that Bridge's Builders have time to practice constructing CALeidoscope over and over and over, before the 2016 Mid-Pacific Regional Competition on April 7-9, at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Go Design, Fabrication, and Builders — the relay team behind Berkeley's success at Mid-Pac!
Go Bridge!
Go Bears!
Berkeley Steel Bridge Team 2016