Knoxville High School

Back Row L-R Matt Larson, Justin Schafenber, Tyler Walker, Justin Wilt Front Row L-R Matt Kaser, Scott Bartlett, Jake Wedmeier, Michael Dayak. Not pictured: Brandon Kennelly

18th Bridge-Pal-Balsa Wood Bridge Building Competition

March 03, 2009

18th Bridge-Pal-Balsa Wood Bridge Building Competition

Bradley University Department of Civil Engineering and Construction

Location: Peoria Northwoods Mall

Date of Event: February 21, 2009

Each year Bradley University, in Peoria, invites area middle schools and high schools to build balsa wood bridges, which are tested for their ability to hold weight. Schools may enter teams consisting of up to four members. Each team is assigned a Bradley student to be their Bradley PAL. Bradley PALSmeet with their assigned teams at least once to help them organize, design, analyze and construct their bridges for the final competition. These meetings are held in the Bradley University's CEC Multimedia Computer Laboratory. At this meeting participating school teams receive the only material they can use to build their bridge. The bundle contents balsa wood bundles, glue, and card stock. About 80 constructed bridges were evaluated and tested at the BRIDGE PAL bridge-busting event at Peoria Northwoods Mall on February 21, 2009.

Knoxville High Schools team of Matt Larson and Brandon Kennelly built the 1^st place bridge. Their bridge held a record breaking 308.3 pounds, breaking the previous record by over 50 pounds.

Other Knoxville results were Matt Kaser and Justin Scharfenberg 3^rd place 227.5 pounds, Michael Dayka 4^th place 174.1 pounds, Jake Wedemeier and Justin Willett 7^th place 149.8 pounds, and Tyler Walker and Scott Bartlett 12^th place -122.8 pounds.

The top five teams will be honored at Bradley University CEC Honors Banquet held sometime in May.

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