March 2011
Halcrow’s annual school bridge design challenge has taken place involving a trip to Scotland’s largest highways project, the M74 extension in Glasgow.
The challenge began when a series of engineering lectures took place with five local Glasgow school’s primary seven classes. As a result of the lectures which were given by Halcrow’s Colin Walker and Chris Binnie, pupils were asked to submit drawings with their own ideas for an environmentally themed footbridge.
This winner this year from an outstanding 111 entries was Rebecca Wallace from St Teresa’s primary school. The judges were impressed with her attention to detail and colourful entry.
The second phase of the competition invited the top six entries from each primary school to represent their school at the Construction Challenge, a competition where the team members worked together to construct a model bridge.
Prior to the Construction Challenge, Halcrow undertook a separate competition with year six pupils from St Roch’s Secondary School. The competition asked them to design a model bridge that could be made during the Construction Challenge. Charlotte Dick was one of five pupils chosen by Halcrow. Her entry was considered structurally sound and buildable considering the material and time constraints of the challenge.
St Teresa’s under the supervision of Charlotte triumphed again on the day with their warren truss bridge structure constructed from newspapers. Their hardy structure was able to hold over 40 kilograms of sand before it started to show any signs of weakness and was a clear winner.
The winning team then went on to take part in a tour of the the M74 extension in Glasgow with contractor INTERLINK M74 JV PR manager, Ewen Macdonell. The pupils then attended a lunch at Halcrow, where they were given the opportunity to talk to engineers and discuss what they had seen before designing bridges using the latest computer analysis programmes.
Halcrow’s associate director for bridges and challenge organiser, Colin Walker said:
"Although the children still have aspirations to appear on X Factor or become professional footballers, I think we may have just given them an insight in what’s possible if they stick with their studies and concentrate on their education. Who knows what the future holds for them, but let’s hope exposure to the word of engineering has a positive influence on their lives."