March 18, 1996

Civil Engineering Students Work on Duraleigh Connector Design

The proposed Duraleigh Connector is intended to improve access from north and west Raleigh to Cary and I-40 but passes near Umstead State Park and Schenck Forest. With strong advocates both for and against the connector, it has become a community controversy with emotions often running high.

Dr. John R. Stone, associate professor of civil engineering at North Carolina State University, has found one way to turn a divisive issue to advantage. He has put the students in his transportation design class to work on examining environmental impacts and proposing highway designs.

Last year, Stone received a grant from the Center for Transportation and the Environment to bring more environmental considerations into transportation design education. The grant coincided with a new computerized classroom, the Advanced Transportation Models Facility, in which equipment purchased by the N. C. Department of Transportation (NCDOT) and software donated by Intergraph Corporation allow the students to perform in-depth analyses of their road designs.

Using state-of-the-art environmental analysis software on loan from the Institute for Transportation Research and Education, the students can call up an aerial map, overlay graphics of the different corridors and assess the impacts. The overlays show various areas affected (parks, homes, roads, wetlands, etc.), and students can manipulate the corridors to avoid the sensitive areas. The students also make trips to the area to conduct field studies.

The students are addressing some of the environmental impacts--wetlands, noise, property taken, traffic congestion and air quality--that an actual assessment does. The ultimate goal, Stone said, is to build a table of impacts versus options for the Duraleigh Connector.

To accomplish that goal, they are working in five teams of four or five students each. Four of the teams are each assessing one of the proposed corridor options, i.e., where the connector actually may fall. The fifth is assessing what Stone calls the "do nothing" approach: the case in which the road is not built and instead Edwards Mill Road is used.

Next, the students will debate the virtues and vices of each of the four corridor options versus the "do nothing" design. After assessing them according to cost, mobility and traffic congestion, they'll choose one alignment for design.

The students' third undertaking is for each team to choose another project related to the Duraleigh Connector, such as innovative interchange design, a special retaining wall for an interchange ramp, or a prototype World Wide Web site with transportation design information for the public.

The Duraleigh project is a good one for the students, Stone said, because it is local and all the information is readily available. Plus, Stone has no problem getting people on both sides of the issue to talk to the class.

Dr. Larry Goode, P.E., the Highway Administrator at the NCDOT, spoke to the class recently and believes that an undertaking like this one benefits not only the students but his department as well. The NCDOT is one of the largest employers of civil engineers in the state and hires many N.C. State graduates.

"From an engineering standpoint, it's a challenging and effective tool for our future engineers to learn from," he said. "The project provides good training in professional ethics for the students in maintaining their neutrality throughout until they get their facts through the engineering."

NCDOT supplied the data package for the Duraleigh Connector with the understanding that the students could use it in their own designs and modify it if necessary.

Stone is careful to point out that the students are not trying to do the job for NCDOT.

"We've got a month per project, and of course DOT has spent years on each of these different components. We're not trying to substitute for NCDOT," Stone said.

What he is trying to do is simulate a professional environment so the students, who are mostly graduating seniors, can understand what happens in the "real world." To get a taste of the controversy first hand, they attended the meeting of the Capital Area Technical Advisory Committee in which it was decided to keep the project on the agenda.

"This is a perfect educational opportunity for the students. They can develop the professional side of the project. They can get a taste of the community interaction that they will have to get involved with as professionals," Stone said. "In particular, they can see the political side."

Jason Orthner, a senior in the class, said that seeing the controversy firsthand gives the students more impetus.

"Placing students in positions where there's real impact will obviously help remove some of the complacency around design," Orthner said. "As engineers we're supposed to remain neutral, but we have to be aware of the enormous impact on the public. We can't avoid impact."

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