In the closest finish in the history of the contest, team “Gold Money,” made up of Cornwall High School graduates Matt Smith and Alex Combs, took third place in the West Point Bridge Design competition on June 28. The goal of the competition is to build the most inexpensive bridge with the parameters provided. Less than $9,000 separated first and fifth places.
“Typically there is a span of over $20,000 between first and last,” said physics teacher and mentor Douglas Stack. “Smith and Combs were less than $3,000 off the winning bridge price and were continuing to improve right to the last minute of the two-hour contest.”
The duo’s quest to reach the finals began in January when they had until the end of May to build the cheapest bridge possible. They completed the qualifying round fourth in the nation, earning a chance to compete in the semifinals against 39 other teams. Smith and Combs finished first in the semifinals on May 30.
Over the last month, Stack practiced with his students by giving them different scenarios and challenging them to build the best bridge. Stack would build a bridge, as did his brother, Chris, a maintenance engineer in Wallkill. The students practiced on nearly two dozen bridges, receiving constructive criticism from their mentor after completing each one.
Stack said just under 400 scenarios could have been developed based on pavement, vehicular traffic over the bridge, and the type of bridge constructed.
The night before the competition Cornwall held its graduation ceremony and all night party. Neither attended the party, but had no regrets about not celebrating with their peers.
“All I could think about during the actual graduation was the competition, so I was just really excited to put our skills to the test,” said Smith
On the day of the finals, Smith and Combs had two scenarios to work with.
“We had never seen either of the exact sites before, but we had seen similar sites before,” Combs said. “The first site was an arch, and we were only allowed to build four meters under the roadbed. This site was very similar to one used in the finals in a previous year, but we didn’t know that until later. The other site was similar to one we had practiced but it was lower than what we had previously seen.”
Despite months of preparation, the graduates found the finals to be a challenge.
“The sites were difficult builds,” Combs said. “Probably the most difficult aspect was the fact that both of us had to build for one hour. This hurt us because I am not as good a builder as Matt, and if he had been building from the start, we would have been able to examine more aspects of the bridges. Another aspect that was difficult was the fact that we did not find the right design for the second site (the suspension/pier) until there was only about 30 minutes left. We tried multiple designs like using a stilt on the pier coupled with an arch, a half suspension bridge, and two experimental bridges that we were not too familiar with, but knew the basics, until we found that if you used a V going down the pier with an arch, that was the cheapest bridge.”
Despite finishing third, both competitors admitted some disappointment.
“I think that we really were competitive and fought until the second it ended,” Smith said. “I obviously would have been happier if we would’ve won, but I recognize that our team was competing at a world class level and that to me is a huge accomplishment in itself. That being said I think we certainly had the talent to win and very well could’ve won it all but didnt show it on the one day it counted. However, I have no regrets about it at all and it was one of the best experiences of my life. I think we gave it our best but just came up a bit short so that’s all you can ask for.”
