Design project builds city, Western bridges

One morning in 1996 then-city councilor Sheila Davenport was talking with her husband, Western engineering professor Alan Davenport, over coffee and telling him of the impending removal of a bridge in their ward.

Looking for a replacement for the temporary pedestrian bridge over the north branch of the Thames River in Gibbons Park, Sheila suggested that Alan could involve the university in some way.

A student design competition was kicked off in short order by Professor Mike Bartlett who began working with the city on the project.

"I remember going to the first few meetings with the city almost feeling quite ill because this was going to be quite a project and I wasn't sure how it would turn out," Bartlett says.

As it turned out the competition was a solid success resulting in the city being handed nine designs of various bridge types. The winning design can be seen on a daily basis by those who visit Gibbons Park in north London.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of that design competition.

Since its debut, the competition has yielded 11 projects by way of 71 designs as well as eight environmental projects selected from 18 designs --involving a total of 400 students.

"Since the first year, we meet regularly with the city to decide what next year's design project is going to be," says Bartlett. "The city is excited because they get a variety of construction style and costs. They want to be able to tell people what the differences in price and styles are."

Projects that the students have designed for the competition include a baseball stadium, environmental projects, highway bridges, and industrial subdivisions, says Bartlett.

"It's very much a win-win situation which is why we've been doing it so long."

Each student team has a Western faculty advisor from Civil Engineering as well as a volunteer external consulting advisor.

"We have some local professional engineers who give up a couple of hours a couple of times a month to give advice on the direction their designs are going," says Bartlett.

"London is just a big enough city to have interesting projects," says Bartlett. "There are enough local engineers that are supportive of these projects."

This year's competition harkens back to the competition's inaugural project. One of the two projects is Meadowlily Bridge, a rusting 90-year-old bridge in London's south-east. Originally designed for vehicular use but since downgraded for pedestrian access only, Meadowlily has fallen into disrepair in recent years.

"It's a bridge that has served its purpose and is due for replacement," says Bartlett.

"We've got 10 groups that are designing alternatives to the bridge, with designs that include steel trusses, stress ribbon bridges hanging cable structures, concrete girders, and fibre-reinforced polymer," he says.

"We're going to have a big design competition on March 6 where a panel of judges will spend an afternoon studying the submissions. There'll be a public part of the competition that evening where the students will discuss their projects.

The judges will then go away and pick a winner."

The judges award five cash prizes up to a total of $3,700. Bartlett says that the judges have a lot of latitude with regard to how much is attached to each winning entry.

"The financial facet of the competition is not lost on the students," says Bartlett. "Even dividing that money among five people makes for a nice bit of money."

Bartlett says that in addition to the 10 teams tackling the Meadowlily project, three other groups are doing an environmental project on residue management in Port Stanley, a project coordinated by his colleague George Nakhla.

One of the reasons for the success of the competition is the students have complete ownership of the designs, says Bartlett.

"We don't really tell the students what to do," he says. "It takes a while for students to realize that they are directing themselves. Once they understand that by late October that's when we really see the intensity pick up."

An interesting twist to the decade-long competition is that several of the external consultant volunteers are alumni who remember taking part in the competition themselves.

"I think it reflects the recognition of the alumni of the value of the design competition in preparing people for the next step in their careers," says Bartlett. "They do it largely because they remember what a great opportunity it was for them and they want to see it continue."