Neligh Graduate Toby Svatos Competes In Bridge Competition

A Neligh drafting student attending Northeast Community College recently built a 2.56-pound bridge that held 300 pounds of weight during a bridge competition. 

Toby Svatos was one of two Northeast students who competed. David Avery also competed for Northeast and balanced 900 pounds before his bridge collapsed. 

The event is designed to demonstrate the structural integrity of the bridge. The competition, organized by Michael Holcomb and Lynnette Frey, Northeast’s CAD/drafting instructors, is normally held the last week of the academic year each May, however, Avery and Svatos were finished with classes in December.

Avery’s 3.68-pound bridge held 262.77 times its weight; balancing 900 pounds of free weights before it collapsed. The accomplishment put him at fourth place on the competition’s Top 20 All-Time list. The record was shattered last year when a 3.78-pound bridge built by student Austin Berg, of Austin, TX, held 1,456 pounds of free weights and sections of railroad track – 385.06 times its weight.

The 2.59-pound bridge constructed by Svatos, of Neligh, held 300 pounds of weight or 126.65 times its weight.

“Dave and Toby were a couple of awesome students and I will really miss them,” Holcomb said.

Both received an A on the project because their structures held at least 50 times its weight. Avery and Svatos were two of the first students enrolled through the program’s initiative to have a dual start, which is why they are fall graduates this year.