Researchers at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), led by mechanical engineer Megan Kreiger, recently 3D printed a 32-ft-long reinforced concrete footbridge at Camp Pendleton in Southern California. Kreiger’s goal is to 3D print a modern-day version of a Bailey bridge. “It would be phenomenal if we could make a bridge that could support a tank,” she says.

3D printing the footbridge wasn’t easy. When she first arrived, it rained so much there were mud slides. “It’s hard to print in torrential downpours,” she says. “It was crazy.”

And the bridge, her latest research project was successfully printed. The footbridge pilot project wasn’t the first successful large-scale 3D printing project that Kreiger has involved. Last year the team completed the 3D printing of 9.5-ft-tall reinforced concrete walls for a 32-ft x 16-ft barracks on site at an army base, in less than two days. The team designed a 3D model on a 10-year-old computer. Once they hit print, the concrete was pushed through the print head and layered repeatedly to build the barracks room walls.

See more photos and keep reading on 3ders.org

 

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