by Derek Neary
Northern News Services

NNSL (Apr 29/98) - With the Fort Providence ice road now impassable and the ferry service still at least a week away, what better time to unveil a permanent solution to the river-crossing dilemma?

Seven students from Aurora College have teamed up to do just that: design a bridge to span the Mackenzie River.

The second-year students spent 14 hours assembling an impressive scale model of the drawbridge for science class. They used balsa wood, colored popsicle sticks, a dowel, pulleys and some wooden framing. The real thing would be made of steel and concrete and would allow vehicles to cross the 1,200 metres of water that separates Yellowknife drivers from the South.

The group decided to design a drawbridge to allow water traffic to pass between the base arches, which would be 40 metres apart. However, their attempt to use a motor to raise and lower the drawbridge fell a little short.

"We had the motor attached to it, but the dowel didn't centre it right. It was getting stuck," explained student Dwayne Kendi.

Instead, they installed a manual crank.

They also had to consider permafrost conditions and the consequent expansion and contraction of the bridge. Student Dwayne Mercredi suggested that the three base arches would run 15 metres below the permafrost to prevent too much movement.

The idea for the project came to Kendi out of the blue.

"I just thought of Fort Providence and the bridge ... because they've been talking about that for a while," said Kendi.

But the students, not being engineers, aren't about to propose the project to the GNWT anytime soon.

"This was something we could do as a team," Mercredi said. "To see if we could get ourselves together and motivated enough to accomplish the task."

Instructor Tammy White said the activity really brought the students together.

"To me, it was a work of art with them," she said, noting that the students all come from diverse backgrounds. "I thought it was wonderful."