The bridges of Hampshire County

Alan Lutenegger and a team of dedicated students launch an ambitious effort to erect an outdoor museum of bridges on campus

by Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff

Sophomore Michael Doodman uses a power grinder to file off some of the old rivets on a bridge that is being refurbished for campus use. The bridge, one of two being worked on currently, is in a field near the Wastewater Treatment Plant. (Stan Sherer photo)

panning the gaps between textbooks and the "real world" and between the present and the past, Alan Lutenegger, head of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Civil Engineering students are beginning to build bridges all over campus. Historic, functional and educational, seven old New England bridges, most from the commonwealth, are being restored by students under Lutenegger's supervision to serve as pedestrian walkways, an outdoor classroom for engineering students, a campus attraction, and as parts of the bikeway.

     Lutenegger also hopes the collection of historic iron and steel truss bridges will be used to generate interest in engineering among school-age children, and he anticipates that other universities will bring their students to tour the bridges.

     "The ultimate goal is to be an outreach program for middle school and high school students," he said. "At the same time, they will be used by our students and others for pedestrian walkways and bikeways.

     "Some are historically significant engineering structures. A living history museum is what we're building here."

     Lutenegger said each bridge will have a marker that indicates its style, place of origin, age, donor, materials, and any unusual qualities it has.

Head of Civil and Environmental Engineering Alan Lutenegger looks for areas that need sanding on the bridge, originally built in 1906, which he and his students will erect on campus this summer. Senior Jason Pisano, who has worked on the 42-foot-span bridge with Lutenegger and nearly 20 other students, provides the sanding. Most of the bridges will be used by pedestrians or bikers, but others might be installed in areas such as the Engineering Quad "for aesthetic purposes," he said. (Stan Sherer photo)

     A core of about eight students, with help from an additional 10 or so, have been working on the project, according to senior Judd Galloway of Burlington, Iowa.

     "It's been fun," he said. "You see it in a textbook, and it's 2-D. But with the bridge, you look at the connections and put it together and see how it goes. You get to touch it and work with it."

     Jason Pisano, a senior from West Springfield, acted as the project engineer, Galloway said. Pisano made a portfolio of drawings, using AutoCAD, that were used to remake the rusted, corroded parts of the first bridge.

     "I made some of the parts over [last] summer," he said, "and some of the guys in the Engineering machine shop helped us, too. They drilled holes or cut pieces, whatever needed to be done. We just gave them the drawings and the materials."

     Pisano said in addition to the practice he got using AutoCAD, he developed skills in machining and other hands-on abilities related to his trade.

     "I learned how to weld, which is a useful thing," he said. Other benefits may be less tangible.

     "Working with the other students and the professor brings us all closer together," he added.

     The first bridge to go up, which was donated by the Vermont Department of Transportation, has a 42-foot-span and will have a wooden deck. Lutenegger and his student volunteers have been refurbishing the nearly 100-year-old structure on the edge of campus, near the wastewater treatment plant.

     "We have our second bridge at the same site, and it's in a lot better condition," Pisano said. "So it won't require as much time."

     "We've spent one and a half years replacing the rusted pieces," Lutenegger said. "We are now in the final assembly stages on this site, and then we'll take it apart and install it on campus." He expects the first bridge to be installed in mid-June, the second in mid-August.

     Locations for the bridges have not been finalized, he said, but eight or nine possible bridge locations have been identified with the help of Grounds staff, he said.

     "These are mostly sites that would either extend the bike path or have pedestrians going back and forth," Lutenegger said. "All but two are locations where there really is need for a bridge.

     "One good ... spot [is] on the north end of the baseball field that goes over to Lot 26. There used to be a little wooden bridge there. Other possible locations are more for aesthetic purposes, such as the Engineering Quad.

     "We're trying to figure out what would be the best right now. We're sort of holding spots for specific bridges. We hope to put up two this summer, one next summer and one the following summer. The entire project will probably take eight to 10 years."

     Although they are scheduled to graduate in May, Pisano and Galloway plan to stick around campus long enough to help put the first bridge in place before heading to Stanford for graduate school in structural engineering and a job with a Norwell site-planning firm, respectively.

     "I'll definitely be around for that," Galloway said of the June bridge placement. "I put a lot of hours into the bridge. I'm proud of it. It was a complete mess, and now it's a viable bridge."

     With negotiations underway for several more bridges, Lutenegger said he might use one of the less historically significant structures as an outdoor classroom.

     "We may instrument it, put strain gauges on it, and place it in the middle of a field as a research bridge."

     Although other colleges and universities might have a single restored bridge, Lutenegger said, no other campus is a bridge museum.

     "It's a way to promote the University. I don't know of any other school in the country who's doing something like this."

     Four of the bridges, hailing from North Adams, Lee, Shelburne and Bondsville, were provided by the state's highway department. One was given by a South Amherst couple. Another by the historical commission in Windsor.

     "We're working on an eighth and ninth," Lutenegger said.

     Not only has every bridge been donated, but also alumni have provided the materials and use of equipment and all labor has been done by student volunteers.

     "We've had some people donate a little bit of cash, so we're not using any state money on this," he said. "Kids have come out of the woodwork wanting to help us. They've done organization, communication, management, estimating, procurement, and construction. The student volunteers ... are all members of the American Society for Civil Engineering.

     "This one's starting to take shape, so it's getting exciting. You get kids involved, and you spark something.

     "Hopefully, we'll get these two up over the summer, and when [students] come back in the fall, there'll be something to look at."