MakeABridge is the weld-free, Meccano-style pedestrian bridge that is designed to install easily and quickly in both indoor and outdoor projects for industrial, commercial, or institutional building projects. The Showcase displays featured the most innovative uses of aluminum extrusion, and were well-received at ET ’12, which was attended by more than 1,100 delegates and nearly 100 exhibitors from more than 50 countries.
The MAADI Group’s MakeABridge design was highlighted as a 2008 winner of the Aluminum Extrusion Design Competition, as best design in the Professional Architectural category. The ET EXPO Showcase, displays an international group of ET’s Professional Design Competition winners in the structural, transportation, and engineered products categories for professionals, and the ET Student Design Competition’s first, second, and third place winners, and honorable mentions for university and technical college students, with scholarships, prize money, and a Grand Prize awarded.
“Four years ago when we won an ET Design Competition Award, we had a prototype MakeABridge joint assembly displayed at ET EXPO,” said Alexandre de la Chevrotière, P.E. and MAADI’s CEO and President. “Since then, MAADI’s bridge design has been awarded U.S. Patents, and we’ve installed the MakeABridge aluminum pedestrian bridge in the Montreal area with great success. We are very pleased with our development of this lightweight and structurally strong weld-free and corrosion-free design with very good results, and we look forward to continued success with all of our aluminum bridge designs going forward.”
“Over decades of use, the aluminum MakeABridge is a very cost-effective and eco-friendly way to provide easy light vehicle, pedestrian and bicycle access for all types of recreational, commercial, industrial, military, and institutional building and construction projects and marine applications,” said de la Chevrotière,“The long-term Total Cost of Ownership benefits of using aluminum means that these infrastructure projects take on dramatically increased economies and value because they are less costly and easier to transport and install, they require virtually no maintenance over their lifetime, and the aluminum is able to be completely reused and recycled at the end of life, retaining high material value.”
“MAADI Group is grateful to the Extrusion Technology Foundation, which sponsors the Design Competition,” said de la Chevrotière, “Showcasing the merits of the MakeABridge design to the international aluminum extrusion community has given tremendous validation of our pedestrian bridge design’s practical and innovative structural capabilities. Winning the ET award in 2008 was a great honor, because it comes from those who know and understand the potential of aluminum extrusions for structural and civil engineering applications.”
