Last Bridge Standing
The next time you drive across the IL-104 River Bridge over the Illinois River in Meredosia, Illinois, thank Sasha Bajzek (CE ’11) for your safe passage. She designed the steel plate girders, steel details, joints, and bearings for the structure’s nine approach spans, each at 140 to 200 feet in length. Bajzek won her first bridge building competition at Tinley Park High School and then went on to win a first-place slot in the 2005 Chicago Regional Bridge Building Contest and first place overall in the International Bridge Building Contest, earning a half-tuition scholarship to attend Illinois Tech. [Read the story about the 2018 Chicago Bridge Building Contest on page 5.] Now a structural engineer with Parsons Corporation, Bajzek shared information about her winning student design and thoughts on why the contests remain relevant today:
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Parsons Corporation: www.parsons.com