Bridge building excursion 2011 - Scotland

As every year after the exam period in the summer semester, some students of the 8th semester could deepen their learned knowledge on the bridge excursion and experience the practical implementation first hand.This year the way led the 18 students and two supervisors from the Institute of Solid Construction to Scotland. The ten-day excursion, which was largely planned and organized by the students themselves, was a journey through time through many centuries of bridge construction.Starting with natural stone arch bridges, the world's first cast-iron and wrought-iron truss bridges, through beam bridges and cable-stayed bridges to kilometer-long suspension bridges, the students were able to analyze and in some cases even experience a wide variety of bridge types and load-bearing systems. In addition to walking through the steel box girder of the Erskine Bridge and the prestressed concrete box girder of the Skye Bridge as well as a guided tour of the Forth Road Bridge, climbing a pylon of the Kessock cable-stayed bridge was a very special experience. The ascent at a height of 34 m led past the anchor points of the cables to a small platform measuring about 1.50 m x 1.50 m, on which there was room for three students and their signal lights. After passing the test of courage, the obligatory visit to a whisky distillery gave the participants an understanding not only of the Scottish national drink, but also of its history and production. After this brief excursion, the focus was once again on the bridges. Telford's world-famous iron truss bridge at Craigellachie was just as impressive as the experimental investigation of the natural frequencies of numerous footbridges excited by the students.After nine nights in campsites and hostels, the prospective civil engineers reached their home - Beyer-Bau - with many new impressions in their luggage and a few experiences richer.

Key data

• Duration: 13.08.2011 until 22.08.2011
• Participants: 17
• Kilometers traveled: 4850
• Bridges visited: 32
• bridges excited to swing: 6
• thereof collapsed: 0
• How-do-you-feel rounds: 10