Dr. Wes Lauer, Mathieu Marineau, Kyle Smith, Michael Peele, Andrew Tran

EWRI Team Wins Nationals!

Four civil engineering seniors from Seattle University won first place at the Annual Parsons Brinckerhoff Undergraduate Design Competition held at the EWRI conference in Hawaii in May.  The yearlong senior capstone project was sponsored by Seattle City Light.  CE seniors, Mathieu Marineau, Michael Peele, Kyle Smith and Andrew Tran worked under the guidance of Dee Smiley, Daniel O’Sullivan and Scott McLean from Seattle City Lights (SCL) and Dr. Wes Lauer from Seattle University.

The power generating capacity of SCL’s Diablo Powerhouse has been reduced in recent years by the growth of a gravel bar in the Skagit River downstream of the power plant. The gravel bar, located at the mouth of Stetattle Creek, has raised the water level in the power plant’s tailrace by several feet, thereby decreasing the energy available for generating power. SCL seeks to restore the lost hydroelectric capacity by reducing the size of the gravel bar. The design team developed a hydraulic model of the affected portion of the Skagit River using the HEC-RAS model and evaluated the effectiveness of three gravel removal alternatives, namely, excavation, controlled flooding, and a combination of the two.

Partial funding for the student travel was provided by the ASCE Seattle Section and the Seattle University Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering.