Civil Engineers Prepare Sculpture Site
February 5, 2005

Civil Engineering students at UE today worked to ready a site behind Koch Center for a steel sculpture to be erected this spring. Concrete was poured in a portion of the base today, to ready the site for the steel, which has been donated by Civez Steel Company, of Lafayette, Ind. Poured today was 3.5 CY of 5000psi concrete, which has a 3” slump, is 6% air and ¾ inch max aggregate. Brian Swenty, chair of the Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering, explained that this means the concrete is much thicker than a lot of concrete one may see come out of a cement mixer, which makes it much sturdier and less prone to cracking. Swenty said UE is following the tradition of many colleges of engineering, which erect steel sculptures on campus. UE’s sculpture, when erected by UE students, will demonstrate many of the 40 different connections used in the steel construction of the newest addition of Koch Center for Engineering and Science.

Pictured above are UE Civil Engineering students Kerry Hall, Brent Schmitt, and Ryan Sermersheim placing the concrete from the truck to the sculpture site.