Western North Carolina Neighbors Need Help. Niner Engineers Are Designing Solutions.

Hurricane Helene victims in western North Carolina desperately need access back to their community. UNC Charlotte students and Ashe County volunteers are partnering together to provide them that access.

Each student of a new independent study course based in the William States Lee College of Engineering has been provided the same challenge: design a bridge that will reconnect a resident’s driveway back to the public roadway. The designs would each address a different real-world situation: actual residential access points that were washed away by Hurricane Helene’s tragic and powerful flooding.

Charlotte engineering alumna Emily Davis ’12, joined by other community members, founded the not-for-profit Lansing’s Bridge to Recovery after they were unable to deliver meals to stranded neighbors due to the impassable water separating them. 

But rebuilding bridges is not a simple task, as Davis knew from Charlotte’s civil engineering academics and her experience as a Professional Engineer. The bridges needed to be formally designed and drawn according to code in order to meet regulatory safety requirements. They must also be resilient enough to survive future flooding. Corners could not be cut, since user safety relied upon the design of these structures. 

The community called. Charlotte responded.

“We knew we needed more help.” said Davis. “A volunteer drone operator, David Dugan of Drone Mapping Solutions LLC, offered his services and suggested I reach out to my alma mater for assistance interpreting his data.” Davis contacted the same department where she had earned her bachelor’s degree 13 years earlier. 

Shen-en Chen, Ph.D., P.E., civil and environmental engineering professor, immediately began developing a new course that would lead students in drafting the designs. On a tight budget and an even tighter timetable, Chen and colleagues developed a new class, weeks faster than it normally takes. He requested support from industry partner Charlotte Water, faculty from other disciplines like geography and the university’s legal office to help establish the new special studies course which began in January, just two months after Davis first called for help.

Students immediately enrolled and are already receiving the necessary data from the actual access points to produce rapid bridge and culvert designs. Using advanced Geographical Information Systems (GIS), drone data processing and remote digital construction (DC) technologies, the students are developing designs that will be shared back to Davis for implementation.

“The novel skills learned in this course are not currently taught in any standard civil engineering class,” said Chen. “Rather, it’s a need-centered model that can help inform new curricula in engineering across higher education.”

Together with guidance from Lansing’s Bridge to Recovery, insight from the homeowners, and mentorship from Charlotte Water, the engineering students are developing ways for communities to reconnect. 

“This spring, the goal is to have each student successfully design one bridge each,” said Chen. “Next semester, the goal will increase to more per student, then we’ll go from there. We’re a university that wants to help — for the long term.”

Niners help neighbors.

In western North Carolina, residential driveways often include stream crossings before reaching the public roadway. Culverts and bridges have long been essential to the residents of this area, due to the many hills, streams and gullies in the geography. For many Charlotteans, getting from one side of a small stream to the other may not sound like a critical part of survival. However, to hundreds of Ashe County residents, those bridges are their lifeline to groceries, work and even medical care.

When an overpass is washed away by flood waters, so too are the opposing embankments on either side of that access point. In most cases, the resulting gap is much wider than the original bridge. This has created a broad spectrum of issues for the homeowners in and around towns like Lansing, NC. A few are inconvenienced, but many more have been disconnected from the rest of the community by what is now essentially a moat. Not only can these North Carolinians not leave their property, no one else can enter, including emergency response vehicles, propane deliveries, general contractors and even DoorDash.

With the heart of neighboring communities in mind, Charlotte Niners are helping fellow North Carolinians gain access to and from their property — some, for the first time since Hurricane Helene.

“UNC Charlotte,” said Niner Engineer Davis, “jumped at the opportunity to help our community and to provide valuable, real-world experience to their students. Ashe County will be forever grateful for their assistance.”

UNC Charlotte faculty leading the course:

• Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Shen-En Chen, Ph.D., P.E., professor with research expertise in structures and forensic investigations of natural disasters
  • Bill Saunders, Ph.D., P.E., associate professor of practice with research expertise in hydrology and hydraulics
  • Glenn Moglen, Ph.D., P.E., professor and department chair with research expertise in hydrology and hydraulics
• Earth, Environmental and Geographical Sciences
  • Tianyang Chen, Ph.D., professor with research expertise in Geographic Information Systems (GIS)