Morrison-Maierle-Sponsored Balsa-Wood Bridge Competition Challenges Helena-Area High School Students

Russ Lay, a bridge engineer with Morrison‑Maierle’s Helena office, applied a stress press to crush dozens of student-built balsa‑wood bridges on Feb. 27, 2026, inside Helena High School’s Little Theater as part of the fifth‑annual Morrison‑Maierle balsa‑wood bridge competition that tests design and load‑bearing efficiency. The event measured winners by strength‑to‑weight ratios — bridge weight divided by the maximum load the structure could bear.

Students worked from kits of featherweight balsa wood and glue, building miniature bridges over a period of a couple weeks before the public testing. Judges used a stress press to apply pressure until each bridge failed; photos and on-site descriptions noted teams and individual entrants watching their models get “crushed” during the timed testing sequence.

HelenaSchools reported that more than 120 students put their ingenuity and engineering skills to the test, while broadcast coverage from MTN and KTVH said this year saw the biggest turnout yet, with over 80 students from a single high school. Participants represented Helena High and Capital High; teachers coordinating the district effort included Helena High technical mathematics teacher Jonathan Driggers and Brandon Day, plus Capital High physics teacher DeLacy Humbert and staff Kendra Kurokawa and Kerri Sutkus.

Student reaction ranged from delight to awe. Helena High junior Grace Dobler said, “I really enjoyed the building part of it because it is different from anything else we do in other classes.” Senior Amos Crowley added, “It was really exciting because we worked hard on these bridges, and it was cool to see our final product get crushed.” KTVH also captured Helena High junior Adeline Olson saying, “It seemed really fun, and they do a lot of projects which I really enjoy doing.” Helenair photos show juniors Kate Hall and Addison McKeever watching their bridge fail as Lay operated the press.

Morrison‑Maierle sponsored the contest and provided scholarship money for the top three bridges, though specific prize amounts were not released. Lay described the exercise’s purpose plainly: “We are not actually building a bridge with this competition; we are solving an engineering problem.” Driggers framed the classroom tie-in, saying, “It is so fun to see my students get excited about something like this,” and that the project was a “great fit” while his technical mathematics class studies trigonometry.

Morrison‑Maierle materials note Lay began the initiative after bridge competitions at BYU inspired him and that he proposed the idea in 2021 with support from supervisors Charlie Brisko and Jeff Ashley. Some company materials call this the “3rd Annual” contest, a discrepancy with multiple Feb. 27, 2026 news and photo captions identifying the event as the fifth annual; contemporaneous coverage favors the 2026 event being the fifth year. HelenaSchools also placed the contest within broader career programming — the district now offers seven consecutive years of career exploration from 6th through 12th grade and highlighted DECA projects such as the district’s “Bear Necessities” and “Catty Shack” shops — and noted, “I look forward to sharing the results!” as organizers prepare to publish winners and scholarship recipients.