The Carroll College Civil Engineering Program Senior Design Course traveled to Reno, NV during the first week of Spring 2025 classes. The purpose of the trip was to visit an abandoned mine site that is at the center of their year-long senior design project.
The Carroll College students, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Nevada, Reno, and the Bureau of Land Management, are preparing an engineering plan for the final closure of the Perry Canyon abandoned mine site. This plan will include the design of access and haul roads, the construction of a containment system for acid-generating waste rock facilities, and the restoration and protection of a stream bed.
The site visit is a critical part of engineering work so that the engineers have a clear picture of the environmental challenges and limitations they must consider during their design. The students also had the opportunity to visit a manufacturing facility for geosynthetics, which they will likely incorporate into their design, and to visit with project partners at the University of Nevada.
The trip is funded through a grant from the Bureau of Land Management as part of a cooperative agreement that the senior design course instructor, Dr. Breitmeyer, has been involved with over the past 10 years.
This project is addressing a significant environmental issue while giving our students real-world, applied engineering experience. The designs produced during the course will be presented to BLM and will likely serve as the basis for implementing the final remedy over the next few years.