The Earth Day timing is purely serendipitous but, as it turns out, entirely appropriate.
Four Wake Forest University engineering students say a nine-month senior project they will present Saturday has allowed them to apply some of what they’ve learned over the past four years while establishing a connection with a part of Winston-Salem they otherwise wouldn’t have made.
Their work centers on the plight of residents living along Brushy Fork Creek who have blamed a 250-acre timber-clearing project at Smith Reynolds Airport in 2015 for severe erosion that has damaged their property.
The students — Haley Corbett, William Nave, Caroline Ward and Crawford Wheeler — spent two semesters assessing the conditions contributing to the damage, developing statistical models based on their findings, then designing theoretical solutions that would fortify the stream banks and protect property.
People are also reading…
On Saturday, they will present the results of the project at the Department of Engineering’s 2023 Capstone Symposium.
The project is an academic exercise and won’t be used to guide any future project to shore up the creek, but seeing what residents were experiencing just a few miles from campus inspired the students’ work.
“No one I talked to knew this was happening, but it’s the community we’ve all been in for four years and I think it’s important to be involved,” said Haley Corbett, referring to erosion that has toppled trees, taken out fences and opened sinkholes in yards just east of the airport. “We just wanted to keep any kind of momentum so the problem wouldn’t be swept under the rug again. We want to do anything we can do to get this problem solved.”
Local officials said this week that a deal to keep Smith Reynolds Airport from being “de-annexed” from Winston-Salem included a commitment from the city to help Forsyth County fund work to shore up the creek instead of waiting for a decision on a state grant whose timing would delay work until next year.
For now, impacted residents continue to go to great expense to protect their property.
“That shouldn’t be happening,” Corbett insisted. “It shouldn’t have gotten to the point where they’re dealing with the problem on their own. “
‘Social impact’
During a practice session Friday, the project team laid out its process and recommendations.
The first step in the students’ proposed solution involves reducing the slope of the creek banks.
“That means you cut away more land but you add more slant and that reinforces the bank,” explained student Caroline Ward. “By having such a deep slope, it’s kind of cutting under (the bank). And that’s even worse.”
The plan also suggests applying biodegradable netting to initially stabilize the reshaped banks, and adding selected plants.
“That increases the roughness of the bank slope so it decreases the velocity of the water in the stream,” Ward added. “We want the plants to be aesthetically pleasing and we want them to be native to North Carolina because we don’t want to bring plants into an area that they’re not already in.”
The four project partners have different engineering concentrations, so they brought varying perspectives and skills to the process.
“I’m in mechanical and chemical (engineering), so it was nice to branch out and try something new,” said William Nave. “But I think the community aspect, just working close to where we’ve been for four years, is just something that’s really important for us.”
For Crawford Wheeler, meanwhile, the work followed his environmental engineering focus.
“I actually can apply what I’ve learned from this project in my job,” said Wheeler, who will head to a position with the city of High Point after graduation.
For the students’ faculty adviser, engineering professor Courtney Di Vittorio, their choice of project subject was no surprise.
“I think they do care about the community piece,” she said. “And I think Wake draws students who want their careers to have social impact.”