Location of Web Plates–Bridge Lab

I’m responding to this late query because the deadline was extended to noon Saturday. Otherwise it would have been too late.

Question

“I have a question regarding the cross-sectional area sketch for the top chord of the bridge. Since the cross sectional area has two sets of different web plates (two are 24x5/8 and the other two are 24x11/16), would that mean that I'd have to sketch four web plates total? If so, how would I arrange these web plates in the sketch (i.e would the inner web plates be the 24x5/8 plates or the 24x11/16 plates)?”

Response

In practice there’s no difference – we’ll take either location.  The difference of 1/16 of an inch matters to the total area resisting the force, but otherwise does not.