IRVING — Inspired by King Bridge, France, Franklin County Technical School fourth-grader Laney Coates, 17, put her welding skills to the test.
The result is a green bench with the words “Entrance to the Mohawk Trail” and a bridge-like arch below it, on the east side of the French King Bridge, between the French King Restaurant and Motel. It was established nearby as its headquarters.
The project began in October 2023, when the Town of Irving contacted welding instructors at Franklin Institute of Technology and asked if any of their students would be interested in building benches for the bridge. Coates, who was described by instructors as a dedicated worker, received the award as his capstone project, which allows his seniors to demonstrate proficiency in various skills learned during his four years at Franklin Institute of Technology. I was assigned a mission.
“I knew this bridge would stand out with the beams and all that. That's always stuck with me. … [Franklin Tech welding instructor Gabe Stafford] So I put it on paper and we said, 'We don't want this to be normal,''' Coates said. “But I had to add a little bit of my touch to it. It's my pinnacle. I have a lot of artistic skills, so I wanted to be a little bit artistic. I wanted to show a little bit of that. I wish I had.”
Coates began studying the bridge, counting and analyzing the colors of the beams and structures. She used her October to April class time to design and weld the bench using metal inert gas (MIG) welding. This skill has been used since her second grade. Coates said she goes to the welding shop every other week to balance her schoolwork.
Coates used a computer numerically controlled (CNC) plasma table to efficiently cut out the metal pieces for the bench, which allowed him to digitally design the 6-foot-long installation cutouts.
Using a plasma table was a bit of a stumbling block for Coates and his instructors, as plasma tables can only accommodate a 4-foot by 4-foot design. This meant that he designed the bench in two parts and had to connect the parts.
“I was a little stressed out about plasma cutting,” said John Passilia, a welding instructor at Franklin Institute of Technology. “You take the whole big sheet and cut out one part of it, but then you move it around and cut out the other half… You cut and paste two things, put them together, and they line up. It's like making sure you're in the right place, otherwise it's all for nothing and you have to start all over again.
Fortunately, Passilia said the process went smoothly without any problems.
“It's really nice to be able to come back and see it,” Coates said Monday as the bench was installed next to the French King Bridge. “It's not just what's in the house…the whole town knows about it, and that's a really great feeling. With this project, I feel like I'm really getting noticed.”
