Capstone Design Spring 2022

Project Partners: City of Oak Ridge Recreation & Parks Department, S&ME, Inc.
Team Members: Blade Jackson, Miller Lowe, Colebi Valentine, Jeremy Sands, Heather Scott

Design infrastructure improvements for recreational use at Alvin K. Bissell Park in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Improve ADA-compliant walkways to accommodate all park users and improve access and mobility at the active public senior center. Solutions should include new site work to create new sidewalk pathways linking the park and senior center and a new pedestrian creek crossing design.

Project Partners: Faith N Friends Horse Rescue
Team Members: Benjamin Carpenter, Megan Hobbs, Brock Jancek, Avinash Palaparthy, Kami Reid, JT Scott

Design a waterway crossing for the Faith N Friends property. Develop a safe crossing to link two pasture fields and accommodate equine, pedestrian, and light vehicles traversing a stream prone to considerable swell and water velocity caused by even moderate storm events. Ensure the site design does not increase flooding downstream from the property.

Project Partners: MBI Companies Inc.
Team Members: Joe Bayless, Chadd Blackburn, Vince Dick, Samuel Flatt, Alexandria Montgomery, Haley Pelham, Graison Sweeney

Design a townhome complex in West Knoxville. Create a plat for a community of townhomes on a two-parcel site. Accommodate moderate terrain through grading and geotechnical design and create a site accommodating several townhomes. Complete design to include stormwater, water, and sanitary utilities as well as the structural design for timber units.

Project Partners: Sevierville Public Works
Team Members:: Charles Blalock, Blayr Corazzini, Emily Stanton, William Ring

Design a single access point to the West Prong of the Little Pigeon River at the Sevierville City Park. The access point shall be accessible for all users and include vehicular access for boat drop-off. Design should be universal such that the concept can be used as a template for future access points in the city’s emerging Blueway system.

Project Partners: Solea Water
Team Members: Claudia Bible, AJ Condra, Andrew Houser, Nathan Smith, Matthew Tolson

Design a turbine system to provide a reliable source of power in Nazarét, Panama. Create a solution providing 10 kW of power for a mini-grid system considerate of physical constraints at the river. The Rio Chico River is a large part of everyday life in the community and the design solution must allow canoes to pass without considerable interference. The turbine system must also be capable of withstanding high flood situations and large debris moving downriver.

Project Partners: Solea Water
Team Members: McKenna Hoag, Sophie Moore, Erin Van Hoozier

Design a penstock system to provide a reliable source of power in Nazarét, Panama. Develop a 10-kW power source for use in the mini-grid system needed for the isolated village. The penstock design must be designed to divert water into the system to a turbine and then discharge the water without negative impact to the natural site. Challenges to the design include the diversion wall which must withstand considerable forces and debris impact, minimizing the footprint of the entire system, and construction feasibility in a very remote site with severe terrain.

Project Partners: TDOT
Team Members: Alex Burns, Tommy Geiser, Jarrett Grant, Darcie Halliburton, Lily Parker, Alex Smith, Seth Ward

Design a bridge replacement over Sweetwater Creek at State Route 2 (US-11) in Monroe County, Tennessee. Perform civil engineering design services to upgrade the road to widen the bridge deck. The design shall accommodate traffic needs and satisfy stormwater requirements per TDOT criteria. A construction management plan is needed to address phasing and offer traffic control during construction of the new bridge.

Project Partners: TDOT
Team Members: Natalie Kernisant, William Bragg, Samuel Garrett, Paxton Lifsey, Ashkan Neshagaran, Jackson Twaddle

Design a replacement bridge over a railway in Johnson City, Tennessee, to accommodate a future CSX expansion. A replacement bridge is needed to replace an aging bridge and resolve safety concerns identified during a recent inspection. The upgrade is also required to accommodate current traffic flow conditions. Construction management and creation of a phased construction plan is needed to allow for continued vehicular access during the new bridge construction.

Project Partners: University of Tennessee Research Park
Team Members: Sunny DeFOE, Macayla Dwyer, Brian Engel, Marshal Evins, Chase Kerr, Meredith King

Design a recreational water use facility to create water access for park tenants and the public at the University of Tennessee Research Park. In partnership with the UT Architectural Build-Design studio, design a facility to house water sports rentals. Develop a site design for the facility considerate of the archeological deposits present at the site. Create appropriate parking, utility connections, and pathways for access to the
building and the waterfront.

Project Partners: Chelaque Estates Homeowner’s Association
Team Members: Braden Boyd, Ashley Hightower, Bryce Lott, Ben Tran

Chelaque Estates is a rural community in Mooresburg, Tennessee, on the shore of Cherokee Lake. The community contacted Knoxx Engineering and requested a plan to address their roadway issues. Knoxx Engineering completed a roadway assessment and is pursuing design work spanning across multiple disciplines of Civil Engineering to produce a three-to-five-year roadway repair plan the Chelaque Estates Homeowners Association can use in planning their future roadway repairs.

Project Partners: TDOT and Barge Design Solutions
Team Members: Ryan Baker, Jared Galloway, Eric Mendez, Ryenne Ross, Mackenzie Simmons

The JMERR Engineering Consultants has been contracted to design the SR131 Emory Road widening project, a road improvement project on a 2-mile section of Emory Road, stretching from near SR 33 (Maynardville Highway) to Bell Road. The project aims to improve the roadways safety, as well as operational and geometric conditions on the section of roadway between SR33 and Bell Road. The SR131 Emory Road project plan is to widen the existing two-lane road to a five-lane curb and gutter section with a sidewalk on one side and a shared used path on the other side of the road. TDOT believes the SR131 roadway development will lead to a reduction in crashes, an increase in roadway capacity, better pedestrian and bicycle mobility, and enhanced connectivity between two major state routes and town Knox County communities, Halls and Corryton. The JMERR group will be working with clients from TDOT as well as mentors from Barge Design Solutions.

Project Partners: City of McMinnville, Obed Watershed Association, S&ME, CEC
Team Members: Savannah Quick, Kate Begley, Kaylee Stanton

The City of McMinnville is interested in restoring the wetland near Bobby Ray Memorial Elementary School. Bobby Ray Wetland Park is a wetland in poor environmental condition, causing major flooding within the residential areas on Calvin Street. Due to the initial site conditions, the area is not being utilized by the city and school owning the property. The City of McMinnville seeks restoration design work to alleviate the flooding issue through the development of a stormwater mitigation strategy while also creating an accessible and educational community area. The city also requested other features, such as a boardwalk and native wetland botany. Using green infrastructure and various civil engineering disciplines, Queenly Engineering, Inc. is developing a redesign plan to restore Bobby Ray Wetland Park to its full potential.

Project Partners: Tellico Area Services Systems (TASS), WK Dickson
Team Members:: Zach Barnette, Sean Kenmuir, Paige Lowe, Alex Moore

TASS serves residential water customers of Monroe and Loudon counties and commercial customers of Sweetwater, Friendsville, and the Tellico region. Our student design team, Tennessee Hydraulic Engineers (TNHE), has collaborated with WK Dickson and TASS to examine problems arising with the current raw water intake system, in pursuit of infrastructure improvements for the utility. The current intake system is located at the confluence of two rivers, leading to unstable water quality parameters during winter pooling and after large storm events. The alkalinity and turbidity levels change rapidly during these periods, posing a difficult situation for the TASS operators. TASS is also interested in increasing their system’s capacity in light of potential population growth anticipated in the region. The TASS team has asked TNHE to assess the intake system and if necessary, develop an economically feasible design solution that resolves the intake system’s technical issues and meets and exceeds consumer demands.

Project Partners: University of Tennessee Facilities Services, Haines Structural Group
Team Members: Trey Lavender, Madeline McClary, Reese Sorgenfrei, Alexander West

Our team has been chosen to design a new pedestrian bridge on the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, campus to provide a link from the main campus to the agricultural campus. Our proposed location is crossing Third Creek from the Agriculture Campus to the Sherri Parker Lee Stadium. This location maximizes utility and minimizes the cost, required resources for construction, and interferences with other pre-existing structures. The bridge will be utilized by pedestrians to give access to a nearby parking lot. The bridge serves to cut down on traffic, give commuters more parking options by connecting the Sherri Parker Lee Stadium lot to the University of Tennessee Agriculture campus.