The multi-turreted castle on the shore of Vic West was the first sign that Stephen Chelli's scale model of a new Johnson Street Bridge might not make it off the drawing board.

Then there was the boiling cauldron. And the people (politicians perhaps) hanging from the centre tower.

"I just wanted something interesting and fun to look at," said the 18-year-old engineering student, with a smile.

The vision of a medieval gateway to downtown Victoria was one of the more creative of 80 bridge designs by first-year engineering students from the University of Victoria unveiled last night. Their imagined replacements for the Johnson Street Bridge were built as part of an engineering design and communications course.

Some, like Chelli and his two teammates, took things to the artistic extreme. Others used inventive counterweights -- in one case a bottle of Canadian Club rye -- to open and close the bridge to boat traffic underneath. A couple of teams tried raising the entire bridge deck straight up as a single horizontal piece, while others tilted sideways or rotated their structures.

James Wood, Neel Dhatt and Alisa Minderova went for function over form by using PVC pipe, rope cables and a simple cylindrical counterweight. "We decided to have a structure in an A-frame because triangles are one of the strongest shapes," said Wood, 18.

The three-member teams were given tool kits and electronic equipment to program their bridges.

Using Victoria's high-profile and controversial Johnson Street Bridge project helped put engineering into a real-world context, said Yvonne Coady, a professor of software engineering who helped organize the event.

"Their next big step in life is to go out there and build things for the world, so they get a taste of it right now," she said.

Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin said he was impressed by the students' energy. "It's great to see how a real-world issue in the City of Victoria is here at the university."

None of the student designs are likely to pop up as actual contenders to replace the old blue bridge, said Fortin, but they were fun to examine.

The city is taking a second look at the real-life Johnson Street Bridge after more than 10 per cent of eligible voters signed petitions demanding a referendum on plans to borrow $42 million of a $63-million bridge-replacement project.

A detailed comparison of replacement and refurbishment options is being prepared in advance of the referendum, likely to occur this fall.

rfshaw@tc.canwest.com