Students earn International Bridge Conference recognition for accelerated bridge construction research

Zhao Cheng knows first-hand the serious effects of earthquakes. “I experienced the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in high school,” Cheng said. “So I desire to construct a bridge that can resist an earthquake well.” Through his research at Iowa State University, that’s what Cheng and fellow graduate assistant Robert Peggar are doing. The two ISU Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering students recently earned the 2016 James D. Cooper Student Award from the International Bridge Conference (IBC). Their research deals with accelerated bridge construction (ABC) for seismic regions.