On a recent Friday afternoon while many of you were hard at work, a fun- loving group of architects, engineers and students gathered at a Denver sports bar to display and break gingerbread bridges in hopes of taking home the coveted Gingerbread Cup! The quirky competition, now in its eighth year, started as part of Ascent Group’s annual holiday party but has since grown into a SEAC-supported industry event that attracted over 100 attendees this year.
In the early days, awards were given to bridges that could simply hold the greatest load, but today the competition has evolved to award structural efficiency over pure strength. This year’s winning bridge, entered by Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc., weighed in at 13.6 lbs and managed to hold a total test load of 230.8 lbs. Second place went to NREL for a bridge weighing in at just 3.4 lbs and able to hold a total test load of 42.7 lbs. And, third place went to Wallace Engineering for a bridge weighing in at 14.8 lbs and able to hold a total test load of 191.2 lbs.
In addition to the Structural awards, Architectural and People’s Choice awards were also issued. Structural Consultants, Inc. took top honors in the Architectural category followed by Wallace Engineering and Rocky Mountain Prestress. The People’s Choice awards followed the same order.
In total, 17 teams registered for this year’s competition including eight teams from Centaurus High School’s pre-engineering program. Centaurus Engineering program, supported by CU Boulder, strives to expose, excite, and prepare students for college engineering programs and the Gingerbread Competition proved to be a great opportunity for the students to gain some real world engineering experience. The students now know how much hard work goes into bridge building and are already brainstorming about ways to take home the cup in 2015.
As always the “eat your own bridge” policy was enforced – meaning all portions of all bridges entered in the competition were made of edible items. All bridges also spanned a minimum of 24 inches between supports and did not exceed 12 inches in height or 6 inches in width.
Interest in the competition is growing outside the state of Colorado. A similar event is currently being held in Portland, Oregon and additional events may be added in Kansas in the very near future. For more information, visit: http://gingerbreadbridge.com.
