Through their capstone project, a requirement to graduate from Oregon Tech, Johnson, Garber and the civil engineering’s capstone cohort are getting an up-close look at the replacement of a more-than-90-year-old structure that delivers irrigation water to so many water users in the Klamath Basin.

“It’s a good opportunity for them,” Morris said during a recent Klamath Irrigation District board meeting. “A large project like this in Klamath Falls doesn’t come around very often.

“This is preparing them for the first day of their career,” Morris added.

Going underground

Approximately 4,400 feet of pipe being installed underground will replace the elevated concrete flume of the same length. The current structure has been in place since the 1920s, when it replaced a wooden flume built in the early 1900s.

“This was the first of its kind in the Klamath Basin,” Morris said, of the C flume.

“A lot of Bureau (of Reclamation) projects, they’re all over the West Coast,” he added. “Our Department of the Interior commissioned all of these West Coast systems in the early 1900s basically.”

C flume replacement construction by R&G Excavating, of Scio, Ore., has been called a “once in a generation” project by Morris. A little more than 2,000 feet of pipe has been installed for the new flume, according to Morris, and the project is on schedule so far to be finished in 2018.

“Anything (R&G Excavating) they don’t get done this year, we still have a safety net of next summer to get that work completed,” Morris said, during a recent tour of the site.

Analysis and solutions

In the meantime up until graduating in 2017, students will analyze alternative, hypothetical engineering feasibility and design solutions for the project without actually impacting the current project underway.

“It’s being presented with a problem and then figuring out the tools and then everything that you need to solve that problem, rather than a typical class structure of being given formulas,” Garber said.

“That’s the interesting part of this project is seeing the big picture, where you’re trying to go, and filling in the gaps.”

Civil Engineering Assistant Professor Matthew Sleep acknowledged the project’s complexities, especially involving overlapping modes of transportation.

“There are three crossings,” Sleep said, of the C flume. “There’s the railroad, (Highway 39), and the Lost River Diversion Canal, and so the water has to cross all of those points. It’s those restrictions that are the hardest things to overcome and it’s the hardest part that our students have had to overcome.”

Students are also learning about other processes involved in a project of this magnitude, which include obtaining clearances needed for projects near highways, in addition to obstacles related to a shortened construction season due to inclement weather conditions.

Studying the C flume

There are four groups of six students tasked with studying the C flume, although both Johnson and Garber emphasized that student proposals don’t impact actual construction or design already in progress.

“We have to be very careful with that sort of thing,” Sleep said. “Our students are using this project really as a benefit to them.

“It incorporates all of the pieces of engineering,” he added. “We do water, structural; there’s even some transportation with traffic, and also some geotechnical (engineering) …. All of the pieces that we teach here are incorporated in this project, which is really great because that’s really rare to have something like that.”

Study and analysis of the C flume replacement does give students a way to gain insight into a real-world project they might face once they enter the civil engineering industry.

“They work pretty hard to make it as realistic of an experience as they can,” Garber said.

Garber is the project manager for his capstone group, and has also attended board meetings at the KID office as part of his research.

The Dallas, Ore., native would like to eventually work as a project manager in construction management after he graduates from Oregon Tech in 2017. Garber sees the project as a helping hand to guide him toward that goal.

Both Johnson and Garber say the project gives them an opportunity to apply and hone the skills they’ve been acquiring the past four to five years, in addition to the chance to get an on-the-ground education in the community.

“One of the cool things about this project is how differently it’s structured as compared to a standard class format where you’ve got homework and tests,” Garber said.

Johnson, originally from Alaska, met his wife in in the Klamath Basin, and said he has found a community here where, if possible, he also wants to pursue a career in civil engineering.

Hands-on education

The project has also gotten a nod of approval from Accreditation Board for Engineering Technology (ABET) officials, who were impressed to find the hands-on project during a visit to Oregon Tech this year, according to Sleep.

While on the Klamath Falls campus, ABET officials asked Sleep, “‘How do you incorporate realistic engineering constraints into your design project?’”

“This is exactly that,” Sleep said.

“Hands-on education for real world experience, that’s the motto and so there’s nothing more hands-on than an actual project.”

In Sleep’s five years at Oregon Tech, this isn’t the first Civil Engineering capstone project that has centered around a community group or project.

Sleep’s cohort last year worked with The Blue Zones Project on findings ways to develop a more pedestrian-friendly downtown. Other projects in the past have involved the OC&E Woods Line State Trail and the Link River Canyon.

“I really like keeping the projects real and local and connected to the community,” Sleep said.

“They’re talking to engineers in the community,” he added. “The connection between the community and the school is something that I personally, I wish was a lot better, and this is one way of doing that. So far it’s been successful.”

Many of the of the students in the civil engineering graduating cohort are not from Klamath Falls, Sleep said, and are unaware of the long history of water issues and water rights.

“It’s been really good for them to get an alternative perspective,” Sleep said.

“This project is more than just the engineering solution. It’s how it is going to impact the entire community.”

To read this article and others on the Herald and News website, please refer to the link below:

Hands-On Education (H&N)