PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles High School students have taken two of the top three honors at the state civil engineering contest at the Museum of Flight at Seattle’s Boeing Field.
A bridge built by a trio of sophomores — Bonnie Sires, Owen Nevaril and Lauren Rankin — took second place overall at the American Society of Civil Engineers’ 21st annual Popsicle Stick Bridge Competition on Feb. 6.
Their bridge held 154 pounds as the fifth strongest bridge in the competition and scored well on the aesthetic judging, said Joe Donisi, a Clallam County engineer and advisor to the school engineering club.
Their strength and aesthetic scores were combined to earn the second place overall finish, Donisi said.
“The kids did awesome. They sure learned about design and construction,” he said.
Lael Butler and Maya Wharton earned third place overall when their bridge held 306 pounds as the second strongest bridge in the competition, but the team had lower aesthetic scores.
For the fourth year in a row, the strongest bridge in the state was built by a team from Puget Sound Community School — a Seattle private school — whose structure held 776 pounds.
Each school in the contest is limited to three entries but can have additional bridges tested.
“PAHS had a strong showing,” Donisi said.
Port Angeles tested seven bridges — all of which finished in the top 10 strongest of the 40 bridges tested at the
contest.
The third official bridge entry for Port Angeles, a solo effort by freshman Linus Waddell held 138 pounds.
Local scholarships were awarded last Wednesday to bridge-building teams based on rankings compiled by local engineers.
While only three bridges could be entered in the contest, all bridge builders are eligible for awards from the local engineering consortium that sponsors the club.
Awards handed out
When the students returned home, builders of the highest overall ranked Port Angeles-built bridge — Sires, Nevaril and Rankin — each received $500 scholarships at the Wednesday award ceremony, which wrapped up the engineering club’s competition year.
Butler and Wharton each received $300 scholarships.
Scholarships of $200 each went to popsicle-stick bridge builders Austin Bray and Orrick Waddell. Their bridge was not selected to be one of the official entries, but it held 235 pounds — the third strongest bridge tested at the contest.
The engineering scholarship consortium includes civil engineers from Zenovic & Associates, Gene Unger Engineering and Northwest Territories Inc.
Each of the firms, Clallam County and the Port of Port Angeles provides volunteer engineering mentors to teach students the basics of bridge engineering.
The engineers remain available to students as mentors after the contest and offer job shadowing and other help after the contest.
________
Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
