Beyond Bridges has designed and constructed a 1:10-scale steel bridge model representing a full-scale pedestrian bridge to be placed in El Paso, Texas. The pedestrian bridge addresses the current safety hazards and disconnect of the area's communities to provide reliable crossing over the Rio Grande. The scaled model serves as a platform for evaluating loading conditions, structural behavior, constructability, cost efficiency, and overall project feasibility.
The bridge was designed in accordance with the specifications of the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC), the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), as well as criteria set by our client. Upon completing fabrication, the team traveled to compete at the Intermountain Southwest Student Symposium (ISWS) in Salt Lake City, Utah, where the bridge prototype was evaluated in the following categories: aesthetics, weight, structural efficiency, construction speed, construction economy, cost estimation, and stiffness.
Project constraints include specific dimension requirements and construction restrictions. Dimension specifications include a minimum clearance and designed locations for the footings. Construction restrictions prohibit construction in the riverbanks as well as temporary piers.
Beyond Bridges compiled all the required tasks and created a Gantt Chart in order to organize the project's schedule. The red seen in the chart the project's critical path. This path identified the major tasks that must be done in time in order for the project to not be delayed.
The managing senior engineer has a bachelor’s degree in the science of engineering, specifically in Civil Engineering. The team’s managing senior engineer has hands-on experience in the company for 9 years after obtaining their Professional Engineering (PE) license and Structural Engineering (SE) license. They will be overseeing the project’s technical work, as well as managing the team to improve proficiency and quality.
The project engineer has a Civil Engineering bachelor’s degree, along with their PE license. Experience participating in projects is a total of 3 years after their PE. The project engineer would aid the EIT in the background research, initial design, final analysis and design, shop drawings, coordination and fabrication, competition, capstone deliverables, and project impacts.
Beyond Bridges’s engineer in training is an employee who has completed their Civil Engineering bachelor’s degree. They have completed their Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam to obtain their FE license. The EIT would be working on the background research, initial design, final analysis and design, shop drawings, coordination and fabrication, competition, capstone deliverables, and project impacts. Their work will be overseen by the project engineer and the managing senior engineer when needed.
The team’s drafter has an associate’s degree in applied science in drafting and as well as two years of drafting experience outside of schooling. Beyond Bridges’s drafter is able to accurately convert an engineer’s design into technical drawings. They will be completing the team’s shop drawings and aiding in the competition during construction.
Our cost of services considers the staffing hours, supplies, materials, subcontracting, and traveling required for this project. The total resulting from the sum of these categories was estimated to be $87 thousand dollars. The cost breakdown of this is detailed in the following table.
