Seniors in Auburn University’s Department of Biosystems Engineering have designed an erosion and sediment control plan to help protect watershed on a projected tank trail system at Fort Benning in Columbus, Ga. The conservation plan is a semester-long senior design project created by Jesse Godwin, Jessica Mills and Ramsey Phillips. The group is advised by biosystems engineering faculty members Mark Dougherty and Oladiran Fasina.

Godwin, Mills and Phillips were assigned a 190-acre area of the proposed tank trail to create an erosion plan that would meet Georgia Environmental Protection Division standards and withstand 70-ton army tanks using the trail. The team’s design includes two culvert crossings and a rock bed, low-water crossing, as well as sediment basins, grassed waterways, infiltration ditches and rock check dams.

Godwin says the team considered cost and best management practices while making design choices for their area. They ensured the trail design was efficient for the army base’s training purposes.

“Our professors give us assignments that try to encompass everything we have learned in engineering, and I can say that this project accomplished that,” he says. “This project gave us an understanding of the whole design process from start to finish and how cost and other constraints will affect a design.”

The group was recognized for their project earlier this month by Maj. Gen. Robert E. Brown, commanding general for the U.S. Army Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning. The team’s design plans are being considered for implementation.