by Matt Turner, Chief Adviser, UC Davis Steel Bridge Team

Please go to our new Photo Gallery site to see all the photos in this article enlarged at: http://gallery.asce-sacto.org)

A year of hard work was summed up over Memorial Day weekend in Gainesville, Florida, as Team Chrome Ollie walked away with a third place overall finish at the 2008 National Student Steel Bridge Competition. Hosted by the University of Florida Gator ASCE Student Chapter, the Aggies also managed a second place in structural efficiency and were in the running for a national award in construction economy, but came up just short with a five builder time of five minutes and nine seconds. This marks the third best finish ever for UC Davis Steel Bridge having taken the national championship in 2005 and second place overall in 2007. It also sets a new precedent, as it was the best back-to-back season finish for the Ags. Many long hours of conceptual planning, analysis, fabrication and construction practice went into preparing for the regional and national competitions. UC Davis also hosted the 2008 Mid-Pacific Regional Conference. The Ags finished second at the Davis Mid-Pac last April behind eventual 2008 national champion the University of California, Berkeley. With the Golden Bears finishing first and the Aggies earning third, this is the first time since 2002 that two Steel Bridge Teams from the same regional conference have finished in the top three nationally. North Dakota State and Lakehead University teamed up to go first and second, respectively, at Madison, WI back in 2002. The dedicated effort of many Aggies helped Chrome Ollie along the way this season. Jessica Revell provided the bulk of the project management, as well as welding, high precision machine work, and travel day preparations. Chris Quon, Rishi Patel, and Jessica Adams were also co-project managers and spent a great deal of time in the UC Davis shop and in the lab helping fabricate the 2008 Steel Bridge. Quon and Patel were also the assembly advisors for the 2008 construction team. Jeffrey Spiro, Shuwen Lin, Nicholas Miley, Alex Wong and Leticia Revuelta spent countless hours practicing and perfecting their assembly sequence for the Regional and National Competitions. UC Davis was the highest placing Team to construct with a 5 person build crew in Gainesville. The Aggies hope to be high rolling next year as the 2009 Mid-Pacific Regional will be hosted by the University of Nevada, Reno, while the 2009 National Student Steel Bridge Competition will be hosted by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Next season looks bright with the Aggies returning four construction team members who will take the reigns of the Chrome Ollie Experience for 2008-2009. They look to boost student involvement and further improve on their construction planning and overall project management in hopes of returning to the NSSBC for a sixth straight year. Go Ags! The Team wanted to say thanks for everything this year, youre the Ace in the Hole as always! Link to 2008 NSSBC Results: http://2008steelbridge.com/