MDOT Bridge Competition

Joe Weidemann-Caleb Yacks-Derek Zbercot

Advisor: Kimberly Gravel
Macomb Math Science Technology Center
Team: Black Panthers

Table of Contents

Summary...................................................................................................................... pg. 2

Introduction.................................................................................................................. pg. 3

Body............................................................................................................................. pg. 3

Conclusion................................................................................................................... pg. 7

Acknowledgments....................................................................................................... pg. 8

Bibliography................................................................................................................ pg. 8

Appendices.................................................................................................................. pg. 9

Summary
This competition is to help MDOT find a more efficient vertical bridge design that is
lighter yet could hold more weight. This is important because if a bridge is lighter than it needs
less structure. It is important to find a bridge that can hold a lot of weight because if a bridge
can't hold a lot of weight then if there is a lot of traffic going over the bridge then the bridge may
fall apart and break which can result in many lives being lost. If a bridge is not efficient then it
should not be used because it would not work as well as the other bridges. This is a very cool
opportunity for the students around the state to help fix a problem and have fun while doing it.
This is also cool because it may allow students to gain an interest in the engineering field of
study which could in turn result in more engineers in the future. It is very important for the state
of Michigan to have a nice bridge design because we are surrounded by the Great Lakes. Also
Canada is right across the Detroit river so the bridge is an easy access way for residents to move
in between the two countries. This makes it very important for this competition to result in a
good bridge design because we can also use it over smaller waterways. A vertical lift bridge is a
really cool design to use because it allows boats to pass under the bridge with a push of a button.
This also makes the challenge a little more difficult for students because a vertical lift bridge is a
lot more difficult to make then a standard bridge because somehow you have to make that bridge
go up and down without breaking. Overall this is a very important for the students of Michigan
to attend not only because they can show off their ideas but they can also help the state that they
live in.

Introduction
Team Black Panthers is made up of three team members. These members include Derek
Zbercot, Caleb Yacks, and Joe Weidmemann. All three team members attend the Macomb
Mathematics Science Technology Center and are all skilled in math and science. Derek Zbercot
acts as the team manager and helps to keep the papers organized. Caleb Yacks is the main bridge
designer and works the programs to test the bridge. Joe Weidemann works on keeping track of
the work that has been achieved throughout the day. All three team members attend different
high schools. Derek Zbercot attends Fraser High school, Caleb Yacks attends Warren Mott High
school, and Joe Weidemann attends Cousino High school.
Body
For our bridge design we have decided that we will use a triangular form instead of cubes
for the legs of the bridge. We decided to use triangles because they are the strongest out of all of
the geometric shapes. We decided that to do this we will make boxes going up and split them in
two which will turn the square into a triangle. We also decided to put an archway over the bridge
so that it can support the road part of the bridge which we also used triangles on to make it as
strong as possible.
One of the only challenges that we encountered in this project would be time
management. Our problem was in the end we were really struggling and running out of time to
build the bridge. This can be a problem because if we do not have enough time to finish building
the bridge then we may mess up our design in the process of building which can lead to many
errors in our tests on the bridges strength.

Table 1: Calculations from the test.

Table 1, shows the final calculations made for the bridge.

Figure 1: Picture of one of the towers.

Figure 1, is an image of an incomplete tower used on the bridge.

Figure 2: Image of the building of a leg.

Figure 2, shows an image of a leg that we used to support the vertical lift portion.

Figure 3: Shows the bridge under construction.

Figure 3, Shows an image of the bridge being added onto so that it can be better
supported.

Figure 4: Testing.
Figure 4, shows the bridge during the testing.

Figure 5: Designs.
Figure 5, shows an image that we used to decide on our design.

We tested our bridge by weighing it and putting it on the block to see how much it would
weigh. Overall it is how we test the bridge properly and see if it is up to competition standards.
By doing this test we can see some flaws with our design and figure out where we need to
strengthen our design. It showed us our ratio also which can allow us to make adjustments and
correct our design however you want.
The improvements that our prototype has lead us to make is that we need to make the
base a little bit stronger. Also we need to work on evening out the bridge so it doesnt fall down
when we are testing it. Also we need to put more glue because when we tested our bridge wasnt
staying together properly which could cause a major problem.
When building the bridge we encountered many problems. The main problem that we
encountered would be the lack of time that we had to complete the bridge. This is a big problem
because we were not able to completely finish our design which deeply impacted our results.
Some safety precaution that I would suggest would be to be careful with the pins when
constructing the bridge because you can hurt yourself when you're building by stabbing yourself
with the pins otherwise it should be an easy build.

Conclusion
In conclusion we think that our bridge was pretty successful. We think that we ran into
some problems along the way that might've made our bridge not as successful. One of these
problems is that we didnt have a lot of time to work on our build so we couldnt glue everything
in time to get it completely test ready. This could have really impacted our results because if we
had more time we could have made a perfect model of our bridge plan. Since we didnt have a
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lot of time we were not able to make a design exactly like outs instead we could not add much
support which could have made our bridge a lot less successful than it should've been. Another
problem is that when we were moving our bridge it cracked a little because the glue wasnt
completely dry. In this project we think that we learned a lot about how important bridge
designers actually are to the world and how difficult it can be to design something that cannot
break or else it will result in many deaths. We learned that this could possible be a stressful job
and that people who design bridges are pretty important. Overall we think that this was a good
project to do to show us the stress and job of modern day architects.
Acknowledgements
We'd like to acknowledge Mrs. Gravel for telling us about this opportunity and allowing
us to be able to team up and compete with the other teams from around Michigan.
Bibliography

"Vertical Lift Bridges." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 12

Feb. 2016.

"Portage Lake Lift Bridge - World's Heaviest Vertical Lift Bridge."

YouTube. YouTube. Web. 12 Feb. 2016.

"Vertical Lift Bridges." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 12

Feb. 2016.

"MDOT - Michigan Department of Transportation." MDOT - Michigan

Department of Transportation. Web. 12 Feb. 2016

Appendices

Table 2: Daily logs

Table 2. Shows what we did on a day to day basis.

Table 3: Time line

Table 3, shows the time line for what we did over time.

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