Steel in the News

In less than two weeks, nearly 50 university teams will converge at the University of Washington in Seattle to compete in the 2013 National Student Steel Bridge Competition finals, which take place May 31-June 1.

The competition challenges student teams with building their own designed and fabricated steel bridges, one-tenth the size of a full-scale bridge, under the pressure of the clock. Bridge rankings are based on a variety of factors, including: display, construction speed, stiffness, lightness, construction economy and structural efficiency.

The 49 student engineering teams that have qualified for the national competition were the top finishers at 18 regional competitions that took place across North America between January and April and included a total of 210 teams. (Click on the left image to view the list of qualifying teams.)

For more information about the competition, visit www.aisc.org/steelbridge or www.nssbc.info.

Chicago’s bascule bridges are some of the city’s most iconic structures but many are in trouble, according to a recent Chicago Sun-Times article. These bridges have made Landmark Illinois’ “Ten Most Endangered Historic Places” for 2013.

While many of the moveable steel bridges are still in operation, others are no longer operable and are due to be replaced in upcoming years with new wider, fixed bridges, according to Landmark.

And despite the city’s $41 million Wells Street Bridge reconstruction project currently underway, other bascules, while not planned for replacement, are deteriorating due to a lack of capital repair funds.

The article says that the city’s Department of Transportation is preparing a bridge preservation plan in hopes that parts of those bridges in need of replacement could be salvaged.

AISC is offering the opportunity to dive into the topic of fatigue of welded connections with a two-part live webinar on May 23 and May 30 titled “Fatigue of Welded Connections - A Primer.”

Part 1, on May 23, will examine the basic concepts behind fatigue including the definition, application and causation, as well as welded connections and variables affecting fatigue. It will also review the aspects of the design model including fatigue testing, categories of connection details and predictive model.

Part 2, on May 30, considers weld geometries in detail with a practical focus on how to increase the fatigue resistance of welded connections. Fatigue enhancement methods will be presented and the role of material toughness on fatigue life will be discussed, along with case studies.

Both parts of the webinar are 1.5 hours long and will use AISC 360 Appendix 3. On both days they will begin at the following times, relative to time zone:

10:30 a.m. PDT
11:30 a.m. MDT
12:30 p.m. CDT
1:30 p.m. EDT

The cost of the two-part webinar series is $325 for AISC members, $500 for non-members and $270 for students and educators. (Fees are based on a per-site connection basis. Purchase one site connection and any number of members in your company or organization may view the webinar at that site connection. All attendees are eligible to receive CEUs/PDHs.)

Registrants will receive access to a PDF file of the presentation slides prior to the webinar, CEU/PDH certificates for all attendees upon completion of the live webinar (up to 0.30/3.0 CEUs/PDHs) and complete instructions for accessing the live webinar.

For more information and to register, go to www.aisc.org/webinars.

The final sections of the 408-ft steel spire for One World Trade Center were lifted to the top of the building earlier this month and installed this past Friday. The skyscraper now stands at a symbolic 1,776 ft high, making it the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere and the third tallest in the world.

Eighteen barrel-shaped sections of steel make up the spire, which weighs nearly 760 tons and will function as world-class broadcast antenna.

You can view videos and photos of welders installing the spire at WABC-TV’s website.

The steel for the building topped out last August when the last of the spandrel beams were installed between the parapet columns. The 104-story high-rise will open in 2014 on the northwest corner of NYC’s World Trade Center site -- overlooking the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island -- with 3 million sq. ft of office space.

More information on WTC’s construction progress can be found at www.panynj.gov/wtcprogress.

The winning steel sculpture in AISC’s second SteelDay Sculpture Competition - “Steel Life-Cycle” - designed by Bruce Helmreich of Michelmann Steel Company (an AISC member). Photo: Michelmann Steel Company

Entries for the second annual SteelDay Sculpture Competition were on display at NASCC: The Steel Conference last month in St. Louis, where attendees voted for their favorite. The only rules for the competition are that entrants must be AISC Full and Associate Members and entries have to fit into a 2-ft x 2-ft x 2-ft box and be made entirely of steel.

Five sculptures were entered into the competition this year, and this year’s winner is “Steel Life-Cycle.” Designed by Bruce Helmreich of Michelmann Steel Company, the sculpture illustrates the various stages in the life of a structural steel assembly, from design to pouring molten steel into a cast to tightening the bolts on the final assembly.

More information about the winning sculpture and its designer will be featured in the June issue of MSC.

You can view all five entrants at SteelDay’s Facebook page (visit www.aisc.org/steelday and click the Facebook link or login to Facebook and search on “SteelDay”) or on AISC’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/AISCdotORG.