UMD's new engineering building designed with hands-on training in mind
Civil engineering students at the University of Minnesota Duluth can start getting the hands-on experience they need to build bridges, highways, tunnels and dams.By: Jana Hollingsworth, Duluth News Tribune
- Civil engineering building
Civil engineering students at the University of Minnesota Duluth can start getting the hands-on experience they need to build bridges, highways, tunnels and dams.
The burgeoning two-year-old department that educates those students will celebrate the grand opening today of the $15 million, 34,000-square-foot Swenson Civil Engineering Building.
The building is the most user-friendly that department head Andrea Schokker has ever seen.
“Everything is on display for the students,” she said. “The building itself is a teaching tool; everything is exposed.”
A high bay area split into two sections contains two 15-ton gantry cranes and a hydraulic flume, which allows for water-flow testing. The cranes can be driven outside to pick up objects as heavy as bridge beams.
The area is meant for large-scale structural testing, and an observation deck allows visitors and students to watch projects in progress. A typical use would be to test UMD-made beams or decommissioned bridge beams for strength by putting weight on them until they break, Schokker said. Supporting such tests are a 3-foot-thick wall and a floor that’s 4 feet deep. Students are trained in safety procedures because the cranes can be dangerous when in operation, Schokker said, and people are kept out of the area during testing.
The two-story building was paid for with $10 million from the state, a $3 million gift from James Swenson, and the rest from UMD. It was designed by Carol Ross Barney of Ross Barney Jankowski in Chicago, along with SJA Architects in Duluth.
The building has been awarded gold-level certification for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards. That was earned by recycling materials in construction, building a green roof and designing for energy efficiency. Wooden scuppers that move roof water into steel rings for storm-water treatment are from recycled pickle barrels from Green Bay. Taconite encased in cages lining one side of the high bay area is a decorative nod to the Iron Range.
The rest of the building — connected to Voss Kovach Hall — is a mix of research labs for machine and soil and rock work, classrooms, study space and offices. One unique feature is an environmental chamber that allows students to test new materials in extreme temperatures.
“Not everyone has one, so you can get special projects,” Schokker said, including from the Minnesota Department of Transportation.
The program this year will include eight faculty members and 170 students. Schokker said UMD has cut off admission as early as December because so many students are qualified and want to enroll. She said every student who has wanted an internship has received one, and the five current faculty members all have research projects. In the 10 years Swenson College of Science and Engineering Dean James Riehl has been at UMD, engineering enrollment has grown from 400 to 1,000.
He credits local engineers with helping to bring both mechanical and civil engineering programs to UMD.
“When I came here, they asked for it,” he said. “It makes us closer to the community.”
The program focuses on water resource, transportation, structural and geotechnical engineering.
Chancellor Kathryn A. Martin said the department matches the needs of Northeastern Minnesota.
“Civil engineering … is a prominent field today,” she said. “This puts us in position to supply the expertise we need for economic development.”
Riehl credits the department’s growth to increased awareness of infrastructure problems that led to several disasters in recent years, including the Interstate 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis, Hurricane Katrina and the New Orleans levees, and the earthquake in Haiti.
“It has awakened the spirit in our young people to become part of fixing and improving the country’s infrastructure,” he said. “I’m a real believer that we need to prepare students with as close to real work situations as we can. These (students) are going out and building bridges.”
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