Who knew snow mush could be such a useful engineering tool?

Outside of the Duckering Building on last Wednesday night, UAF students Garret Thatcher and Curtis Nordin hosed down a pile of snow and then helped Wilhelm Muerch packed it into the ice arch they were constructing. It was late and cold, but by the end of the night, the ice arch was nearly done.

Ice arches are an annual tradition of UAF's student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineering and have been constructed since the 1960s.

"This is one of those traditions where people forget why it started, and just run with it anyway," said arch designer Joshua Hunter.

The group hopes to avoid last year's catastrophe when the ice arch collapsed inward after the falseworks were removed. Although it had been the largest ice arch in memory, the arch fell apart due to a break in the framework. This year's arch design has a "more consistent shape," Hunter said, which should allow it to last.

Another difference between this year's arch and last year's are the materials being used. During the past few years, the ASCE used giant ice blocks, but this year the group is using water and snow mush to accomplish the job.

This year's arch is also 15 feet tall and 5 feet wide, making it smaller in comparison to last year's 17-foot tall arch.

Although the arch should be sturdier, its construction was not any easier. Originally the group had planned on making the arch entirely out of water spayed onto wooden supports. However, the weather proved to be too warm for this to be effective, said Wilhelm Muerch.

"We were only getting like an inch an hour."

In order to speed construction along, the group began wetting down snow and adding the resulting mush to the structure.

Other contributors to the project included Matt Shawcroft, Rob Vaughan, Nathanael Vaughan, and Rob Casey. Great Northwest Construction contributed a water truck to the effort and also contributed advice, said Hunter.

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