BATON ROUGE - From a structural model, to the real thing, engineering students at Scotlandville Magnet High School are designing bridges of their own. 

"It was exciting," DOTD Engineer Joy Johnson said. "Some of the kids had designs that I have never even seen before."

The students are competing in a bridge design competition, and just like the Department of Transportation, they had a tough assignment with limited materials and a tight deadline. Fortunately, there were no traffic messes to clean up, and nothing crashed into their bridges.

"We wanted to give the city something that was safe for people to drive on," senior Kambria Jones told WBRZ. "Then we had to think about the 5 o'clock traffic. People don't want to be in traffic that long after work."

Business students even presented their bridge proposals and cost estimates, and compared them to the real thing. The competition has given students the confidence to tackle bigger problems - like the Sunshine Bridge.

We asked Krystal Bailey, a Scotlandville High student, if she thought she could do DOTD's job. Her answer?

"We already did, that's why we won."

But can the actual engineers working on the Sunshine disaster learn from the students? Johnson thinks so.

 "We're always interested in new, innovative ideas, and I think the kids definitely have ideas that the department could possibly learn from."

Although two teams were declared winners in Friday's competition, the students will have their 12th annual engineers breakfast at Boudreaux's on December 7th to help raise money for the school's engineering program.