Local companies showed their gratitude for the research by donating all the materials and services for the new building expansion at 303 E. Chesapeake on the Research Campus. The expansion nearly doubled the space available in the lab when it opened about two years ago. The original building was the first on the research campus.

The lab is about to get a new test building that will come on line in January. Undergraduate civil engineering students built it on the Fears Lab grounds. The building will be used to test concrete for pressure and buckling issues, Ramseyer said.

David Streb, now director of engineering at the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, was in the first class of undergraduates who worked with the Fears Lab in 1986. He started his career with the ODOT at that time, working part time for the department doing research in the lab.

The ODOT still partners with OU in the Fears Lab, Streb said. Nine undergraduate students are employed part-time to work on bridge projects. A similar program is in place at Oklahoma State University, where students work on roadways, but the Fears Lab is unique to OU, Streb said.

"It's really a unique and fascinating program that's worked out wonderfully," he said of the lab. Many students who work part-time for the ODOT at the Fears Lab also, like Streb, decide to stay on with the department.

"They're getting essential training by those who will eventually hire them," Ramseyer said of the relationship between the OU students and the ODOT and industry professionals they work for while at OU.

The ODOT benefits from the contacts it maintains with the Fears lab, and the experience gleaned from working at the lab prepares the students for their profession.

Research at the Fears Lab saves taxpayers money, too, Streb said. That's the goal of the research, to find materials and technology that produce safe and durable structures.

"But also find better ways to make cost-effective repairs to our bridges," as well as making cheaper and longer-lasting bridges and roads, Streb said. The Fears Lab has been a big player in that, he said.

"It's something that goes on that I don't think a lot of people are aware of," he said.

Julianna Parker 366-3541 jparker@normantranscript.com