Kincorth Academy Builds Bridges with Petrofac

Petrofac, the international oil & gas facilities service provider, has hosted its annual bridge building competition for pupils of Aberdeen’s Kincorth Academy, the school which it has supported for 11 years through an education-industry partnership.

This was the ninth year that the initiative has been run and, once again, the pupils were challenged to put their engineering skills to the test. Teams of pupils constructed 300mm-long balsa-wood bridges during the course of the school term, from materials supplied by Petrofac and under the supervision of the school’s technical department.

The judging took place at Petrofac’s Bridge View office, and the expert panel took into account the design, presentation and build quality. During the judging process, the bridges were set up on a purpose-built test stand and their structures were subjected to an increasing load test by adding weights to a bucket suspended from the bridge.

The Business Games Winners’ shield was presented to the winning team, Stefanie Hendry, Scott Duncan, Chloe Taylor, Amy Boyne and Shannon Laing.

Head teacher of Kincorth Academy, Grahame Whyte, said: “This is always one of the more popular initiatives we run in conjunction with Petrofac under our education-industry partnership. The pupils get to work closely with Petrofac’s professional engineers and enjoy the hands-on nature of the challenge. The pupils have thoroughly enjoyed the experience and shown great enthusiasm for the task.”

Petrofac’s risk and assurance manager, Tony Spice, said: “Petrofac's annual bridge building competition is always a technically rewarding and fun-filled event for all those involved and this year’s event has been no exception with some excellent results achieved by the teams.

“This competition is one of the many initiatives we have supported. The partnership has not only benefited pupils and teachers at the school, but has also given Petrofac staff the opportunity to provide significant support to the local community.”