Cable-Stayed Bridge Complete

I have completed, for now at least, my K'nex cable-stayed bridge. The bridge measures 55 feet long with a 25 foot central span which rises 3.5 feet above the ground. The two supporting towers measure just over 7 feet high and the road deck is 7 inches wide and 1.5 inches thick. The bridge is supported by over 200 feet of cables and uses just over 9000 pieces. If the bridge can support it, I may double the width of the road deck.

Pix or it didn't happen:

Bridge construction delayed... several times

Due to midterms, excessive amounts of homework and cold/rainy days I have not been able to get any work done on the bridge, and have left it sitting in it's half-built, semi-stable state. Of course Murphy's law decided to troll me with a surprise 2-inch snowfall in early October... Naturally the weight of all the snow on the road deck caused half the bridge to collapse. Since one of the towers is now a 2.5 foot pile of rubble I will need to wait for everything to melt and dry off before I can do any more work. I DO intend to finish, however, even if i have to wait out the winter.

K'nex Bridge Setup Begins

I extended the height of the main towers by another foot and placed both of them outside to begin attaching the road deck. The progress is very slow going because one 5-foot section of bridge takes an hour to construct due to the strength requirements. So far I have both of the lead-in ramps nearly completed, and some test cables in place balanced by a 7-foot section of the main span. The cables in this image are made of K'nex chain, but I will probably end up using rope due to piece limitations.

New Project - Cable-Stayed Bridge

I have begun to work on a K'nex cable-stayed bridge with what I hope to be a 25-30' center span. So far I have a prototype for one of the main supporting towers complete, but it turned out smaller than I had expected, falling 2' short of my plans. When completed, if all goes as planned, the bridge will measure over 60 feet long and be supported by 8 pillars (2 main towers, 3 smaller towers on either end).

Compact Model Rollercoaster

This is not K'nex, but it is still a building system so I decided to post it. I built this model roller coaster in one afternoon from about 700 pieces and contains about 25 feet of track which twists into three inversions, all barrel-rolls. The entire model fits onto a space only five feet long in between two bookshelves.

21 Foot K'nex Tower

This is a K'nex tower built by myself, Simon Olson and Sam Ihlenfeldt in a little over an hour. It measures 21 feet tall and only 3 inches wide, which could be a record for a height-thickness ratio but it would be too much work to validate that, this is just for fun. The ground the tower rests on is on a slight slant, and the tower collapsed 30 minutes after completion, nearly landing on a surprised biker! The tower has been moved to a more stable location where it remains standing.
The base of the tower is weighted down with bricks for stability.

K'nex Chair

This K'nex chair was built in about one week and can actually be used to sit in as it is capable of supporting over 300 pounds. The chair is supported by four legs and contains over 2000 pieces.