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November
14, 2005 Vol. 77, no. 12F
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| THE
BRIDGE AND THE BARRIERS: In May this
year, Danielle Hutchings, Robert Simpson, Ryan Stauffer, and
Douglas Wahl – a team of CEE students – released
three preliminary designs for a suicide barrier on the Golden
Gate Bridge. A digital version of these designs was electronically
added to the bridge by photo artist Nick Fain to produce the
images you see here. Top left, the bridge railing as it exists
today. Clockwise from top right, the team’s designs: “Flowing
Arch Portal,” “Modified Pedestrian Rail,” and “Split
Post.” Doug Wahl says, “I like the split post design
the best, but other people seem to like the flowing arch portal.”
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CEE design
team chalks up another success
Students create three models of suicide
barrier for Golden Gate Bridge
The CEE undergraduate team that produced several designs for a suicide
barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge achieved yet another success. The
group’s paper has been accepted for publication by the American
Society of Civil Engineers’ Journal of Architectural Engineering.
The four team members had earlier submitted their final paper from
CE 180, “Construction, Maintenance and Design of Civil and
Environmental Engineered Systems,” taught by Professor Robert
Bea. The students received notice of the news on Monday, October 24.
“Not many undergraduates are able to do this, especially when
they are the primary authors and not the professor,” says CEE
graduate student Kofi Inkabi, a graduate student instructor for the
course. “I
am so proud of our students.”
Team members include Danielle Hutchings (B.S.’05 CEE), CEE senior
Doug Wahl, Ryan Stauffer (B.S.’05 CEE), and CEE exchange student
Robert Simpson of Scotland. The group’s accomplishments have
been many: first place in the CE 180 design competition, a top three
placement in the spring poster session, coverage in the San Francisco
Chronicle, and – the icing on the cake – a political win.
In late April, the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District
Board approved a $2 million barrier design study. The board was able
to visualize how a barrier might look, thanks to the team’s research.
“That was amazing,” says Wahl. “We never thought we would
actually help the board get cold hard cash on the table. But we gave
them an extra tool to go and get that money.”
In just one semester, the team produced three different models within
the general design criteria established by the board: aesthetics, cost,
maintenance, security, emergency response, and of course, the ability
to impede someone from jumping. Members estimate they each put in 200
to 300 hours on the project.
Wahl says the experience has been invaluable. “It’s made
me rethink my career path,” he says. “I’m more interested
in risk assessment now, and I think about projects in terms of whole
systems. It’s so important to not just do calculations, but engineer
within political, economic, social, and cultural systems.”
Wahl graduates in December and is looking for a job. In the meantime,
he’s now involved in another hot Bay Area topic: studying seismic
vulnerability in the Delta’s levee system.
Read EN’s first
story about the suicide barrier design team at www.coe.berkeley.edu/engnews/Spring05/EN13S/jump.html.
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