MSOE walked away with four trophies at the Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) Region 3 Conference and Student Competitions in October. Students in MSOE’s Civil and Architectural Engineering and Construction Management Department took first place in the Heavy Civil Regional Competition; second place in the Design/Build Regional Competition; second place in the Project Solutions National Open Competition; and third place in the Electrical National Open Competition.

For each competition the teams receive a request for proposal (RFP) for a real project at 7 a.m. and have 16 hours to turn in their proposal at 11 p.m. The following morning they present their solution to a panel of judges, which usually includes individuals who were involved in the actual project.  

Regional First Place: Heavy Civil
The Heavy Civil Team won the first place regional title with their RFP for a heavy civil project to decommission an existing airport runway and its conversion to a taxiway, the construction of a new access road, the relocation of an existing airside service road, and the construction of the central and western portions of a new runway. This was the second time MSOE has participated in this competition—and second time they took first place. The competition was sponsored by F.H. Paschen.

Regional Second Place: Design/Build
The Design/Build Team earned second place with their RFP for a new residence hall at the University of Illinois-Springfield. This project included the design and construction of a new building on a greenfield site to house 450 beds for undergraduate students in a mixture of single- and double-occupancy, apartment-style units. McCarthy sponsored the competition.

National Second Place: Project Solutions
The Project Solutions Team took second place in the national competition, which was sponsored by NPCA/PROCORE. This competition encompassed multiple aspects of a large precast concrete stormwater pump station project. Originally, a new station was proposed to handle road drainage and community drainage on the east coast using a cast-in-place concrete application. Due to site constraints and other factors, the DOT was interested in using precast. The student team was charged with developing a plan to provide services including cost estimating and installation of a precast pump station.

National Third Place: Electrical
The Electrical Team took third place the national competition, sponsored by Aldridge Electric. The team of students served as the electrical contractor for a project at an airport where they were responsible for underground concrete encased ductbank systems for high and low voltage power distribution as well as communications, aircraft rated manholes, high and low voltage wiring and terminations and more, along with installation of a state of the art in-pavement light control system to aide in air traffic movement.