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Beer Crate Bridge KOers
During my year as the President of Student Union KOers, I pronounced the idea to have a never-to-forget activity, which would exceed the borders of our city Eindhoven. This was very successful.
The student union "Praktische Studies" from Delft University constructed in the year 2004 a bridge made of beer crates with a span of 7.20 meters. April 2004, Student Union "Concept" beat this record with a span of 7.60 meters. We thought this was too less and pronounced in November that we would beat the record with not only a span of 16 meters, but also with an esthetic design for the bridge where the design meets the structural loads. This great span was based on the width of the river the "Dommel", which goes through the campus of TU/e. We planned to construct the bridge over the river, like a bridge should be. To engage the whole department of Building, Planning and Architecture, a design contest was organized and I joined the jury. The final winners were Maarten Tielemans, André van Leth, Saskia Frijns and Renze Visser.
The organization took from November 2004 till June 2005 and cost many hours of work, negotiations and go-no-go's. The most exiting moments during the organization were finances, sponsorships of materials and equipment and of course manpower. Eventually this project cost about €80.000,- and about 100 student contributed in the days of construction. My part was being the President during the Organization and during construction the site manager and PR. It was a very educational activity, where I am still proud at.
Monday June 13th, the construction started. The first crate was placed by the winners of the design contest. Even before the start of the construction there had been already lots of publicity in newspapers and broadcast interviews. As now the broadcast were there to interview the event of the first crate. The construction with went very fast, but was more complex than expected. Measurements were very important and had to be adjusted on site. This was the most important, because the two separate parts of the bridge had to close in the top.
Tuesday June 14th the construction went on and at 2PM we reached a height of 6 meters. The construction grew fast, but the measurements delayed the project.
Wednesday June 15th, the press was all over the place and on the phone when we would finish and get the record. At 3PM the bridge closed in the top on a height of 8 meters. The closing went better than expected. Now was the time to take the scaffolds away and let the bridge bear its own weight. We started in the middle and this caused small cracks in the top. All the professors of Structural Engineering were present for advices. And lifting the other parts of the scaffold near the two ends almost closed the cracks. The bridge sunk about 30 cm and we never could have expected that. Parts of the scaffolds had to be adjusted and replaced by other parts, because they couldn't take it anymore. Time was running fast and many people were present. At 9PM the bridge was almost free, but it was getting dark and the student workers were too tired. We decided to stop for safety issues.
Thursday June 16th was a sunny day. All the student workers had a good night sleep and were exited to finish the project. We started early in the morning and everything went fine. Early in the morning the current record of Twente was broken with a span of 9.20 meters free span. The Board of Directors of the University came and we drunk Champagne to celebrate. Of course we wanted to go as far as possible, so we started again right away. Very fast the records of 10.20 meters and finally the current and new record of 12.60 meters was ours. A new record! It was time to party!
This was a very educational experience for design determination and calculation, design and loads, organization and a lot media experience for the Student Union KOers.
Graduation Project (03/07)
Master Projects:
Human Tissue Inc. (11/05)
Passages (03/05)
Twisted Life (06/04)
Swim Stadium(03/04)
ToyHouse (11/03)
Other Projects:
Relax and Meet (03/07)
Spinning Views (04/06)
Beer Crate Bridge (06/05)