Creative construction
23 Aug 2018
It took hours to complete and was destroyed in seconds, but Year 9 student Thimeth Wijesinghe didn’t mind. What it may have lacked in strength was compensated for by its unique design – as Thimeth’s combination of a truss and arch bridge won the Innovation Award at the Aurecon Bridge Building Competition, held at St Margaret’s College on Wednesday 15 August.
“Truss bridges are very common, but I wanted to make mine a bit different, make it look more appealing, by putting cylinders in between,” says Thimeth. “I wanted to make it unique, so had to sacrifice some of the strength.”
To ensure a level playing field, all entrants build their bridges to a design brief and specifications and using bridge building kits supplied by Aurecon. Before being load tested, the bridges were assessed for workmanship, innovation, aesthetics and functionality.
