Second Annual Popsicle Stick Bridge Building Contest:
A Day of Breaking Bridges

The Sea to Sky Branch second annual popsicle stick bridge building contest took place on Saturday March 9th at Park Royal Mall. It was a day of broken expectations, reining champions and surprise winners.

The branch area was well represented, with most participants coming from the North Shore, but a group braved the elements and drove down from Mount Currie, and a few took the ferry from the Sechelt Penninsula to make it for the competition.

The elementary division testing took place in the morning, with 28 bridges registered for testing. There were some familiar faces from last year's competition. Last year's elementary champion, Marissa Lamb from Gibsons, come with a new bridge design. Marissa seemed disappointed with the performance of her bridge, but she still placed 3rd. Marissa's sister, Kirin Lamb, submitted a bridge for the first time this year, and placed second. I'm sure they'll be challenging other contestants for years to come.

This year's winner was Alexander Stojkovic, a grade seven student from Westview Elementary. His bridge held up a whopping 1010.2 N (227.1 lb)! Congratulations Alexander!

Second place was taken by Brian Hicks from Balmoral High School. First place was reining secondary champion, Cody Dart. Cody's bridge held up 1004.1 N (225.7 lb), almost a 3 times improvement over last year. Cody has another TI-83 plus graphing calculator to add to his collection.

Entries were thin in the open category this year, with only three entries everyone was guaranteed a prize. No wimpy bridges here though; those prizes were earned!

Second place was taken by Theresa Wai, a teacher from St. Pius X Elementary school. She runs a Science and Engineering club at the school and had about 12 of her students enter in the elementary division. Jesse Martins won, with a bridge that held up 1449.9 N (326 lb)! Jesse, who's a stay at home dad, was surprised himself with the outcome of his bridge design. His goal was to reach 100 lb (about 450 N) and ended up about tripling it! Jesse was picking the brains of our judges for tips and ideas for next year: Jesse, considering a change of career? See the results from all the bridges at our web site (coming soon).

Thanks to our many sponsors and supporters. Go to our website for links to their web sites!
Testing Equipment: Levelton Engineering and RST Instruments.
Prize Donations: Wood Works! (Canadian Wood Council), Staples and Science World.
Kids activities: GeeringUp! from UBC.
Thanks to Daniel Leonard, a UBC structural student who brought out his huge popsicle stick bridge for display.
Thanks to Marvelous Muffins for deals on the muffins, and the Sony Store who lent us a HUGE video display for the day. Of course, thanks to all the volunteers who helped out. I couldn't have done it without you!

By Johanna Mantsinen, EIT

Elementary Division

Name	Weight	Load	Bridge Type	Failure Description
Alexander Stojkovic	156	1010	Single inverted deck truss	Chord tension failure
Kirin Lamb	162	930	Inverted triple truss	Top chord failure of truss
Marissa Lamb	156	709	Inverted single truss	Lateral buckling of structure
Marielle Aviz	163	655	Triple deck girder bridge	Shear failure
Ludwig Hon Coleman	197	626	Deck (triple) inverted truss	Lateral buckling of structure
Kathleen Mills	161	541	Deck arched truss	Failure in the support system at abutment
Chelsea Terczynski	152	503	Parallel chord through-truss	Top chord lateral buckling
Luke Gooding	159	430	Deck arch	Lateral deflection of structure
Angus Milne	130	422	Deck parallel chord truss	Dramatic disintegration
#3 5th Grouse Pathfinders	171	308	Single girder deck	Shear failure at support
Natasha Shigas	99	274	Parallel chord deck truss (triple)	Failure at end diagonal
Amanda Rella	156	223	Parallel chord through-truss	Lateral sway of end support frame
Nathan Spratt	146	220	Triple chord through truss	Lateral buckling of structure
Zoe Atkinson	99	188	Deck twin girder bridge	Flexural failure of girders at third point
Justin Wong	101	187	Centre girder - deck on girder	flexural failure of girder
Steven Joe	170	186	Through truss (without top chord lateral bracing)	Buckling of unrestrained top chord
Dayle Gill	102	185	Through truss	Buckling of top chord
Jeffery Chan	148	173	Deck twin girder	Flexural failure of girders at third point
Chantel Sutherland	116	128	Upstanding girder bridge	Bending failure at girder
Shailen Vallabh	97	117	Paralell chord through-truss	Abutment end bearing point failed
Ian Holliday	148	73	Through-truss (multiple truss configuration)	Flexural failure of the central chord
Allie Buffone	230	68	Deck girder	excessive deflection
Andrew Legge	100	56.3	Parallel chord through truss	Top chord failure
Arnold J. Nelson	153	55	Through truss (unbraced top chords)	Buckling of unrestrained top chord
#1 5th Grouse Pathfinders	177	40	Twin girder	Shear failure of glued joint
#2 5th Grouse Pathfinders	147	40	Flat plate bridge	Support failure
Damen Aromann	155	19	Trough truss (minus a top chord)	Catastrophic failure of central joint
Jonathan Keitlah	98	11	Twin upstanding girder	Failure of discontinuous beam

Secondary Division

Name	Weight	Load	Bridge Type	Failure Description
Cody Dart	172	1004	Inverted single truss (triangular configuration)	Shear failure in end bearing system
Brian Hicks	156	654	Through-truss bridge	Top chord failure at end diagonal
#2 5th Grouse Pathfinders	112	327	Twin girder deck bridge	Girder flexural failure at one fifth point
Janet Azuma	142	279	Assymetrical knee-braced girder bridge - 2 planes	flex failure of girder at knee point
Tasheena Pierre	161	71	Upstanding girder bridge	Flex failure of girders near midspan

Open Catagory

Name	Weight	Load	Bridge Type	Failure Description
Jesse Martins	175	1450	Deck truss	Flexural failure of abutment end support members
Theresa Wai	148	629	Deck inverted truss bridge	Separation of the apex of the lower chords at midspan.
James Blake	132	419	Deck truss (triple)	Failure of abutment end bearing systems, followed by separation of end diagonal from top chord.