...will be "tested to failure" by hanging weight from a hook placed in the center of the structure during competition. Peter Giessel, an engineer-in-training for DOT, said there is a lot of trial and error in building balsa wood bridges. He...

...awesome." The first bridge to break Saturday was a truss-style span made in four hours by DOT engineering assistant Peter Giessel. A simple beam bridge by Scarbrough started to bend down at 30 pounds of load and began crackling at 75 pounds, before...

...Museum will host the 12th annual Balsa Bridge Contest from 1-4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18, with Juneau engineers Peter Giessel and Gary Scarbrough of the Department of Transportation's bridge design team. Participants, 10-years-old or...