The Rules came out last Thursday, 7/20 -- Matt found them at about 1 in the morning, said he couldn't sleep, but it sounds more like a Shyamalanian connection to everybody else.
A lot of changes, and a return to the "sqaureness" of the competition. NO more skew, but there are some interesting construction changes. As for the structure, it's a bit more varied, like canoe of sorts, bridges could theoretically be as short as 18' or as long as 21'. So the challenge to keep the span minimal while simultaneously not getting the piers too close for comfort will be an interesting concept.
Lots of temporary piers for most folks probably, not only are they allowed to go everywhere on the site, but the supporting constructed portions by builders is pretty much forbidden. Only a 9 foot river, but this will leave some issues for those who choose a truss and desire central chords which will need to be reached.
Beams are also a possibility - the loading proves that no killer central load could let the beam sneak through.
Time is money, weight is money. Notice how the Efficiency has been split up, so we can see weight is slightly more important than stiffness, though we don't want stiffness to skyrocket.
Good mix of necessity for this year's type selection. Should see a wide range of designs winning depending on the project management of each school Team.
As for Chrome-Ollie, you can expect a damn muy bien bridge.
