Civil Engineering 2006 Senior Projects
MATT at Grand Circus Park Station. From left: Alan, Joseph, Matt, (statue), Ali, & Erika
Metro Area Train Transit (MATT)
Mass Transit for Metro Detroit
The Metropolitan Detroit Area is and has been expanding at a rapid pace over the past decade or so. Places of work and residence are growing farther apart, which increases the distance of commuting and makes it more difficult, dangerous, costly, and time consuming. Also, business corridors that were once thriving are now being deserted as people no longer frequent those areas. Furthermore, there are those individuals who cannot get around via automobile due to financial or personal reasons. To compensate for this growing problem, M.A.T.T. has been formed to investigate, propose, and design an extension to the People Mover for the Metropolitan Detroit Area as an alternate means of transportation to alleviate congestion of Southeast Michigan roadways and to provide a more efficient means to move people throughout the region. The proposed system is an all-encompassing system for the entire region, but for the sake of argument, design will be limited to the area east and west of Fairlane Mall in Dearborn, MI. Design will consist of typical horizontal curves, a standard section of track, a standard station, the foundations for the track and station, and the project planning, construction schedule, and cost analysis for the project.
Group Members:
Joseph Bossard – Team Captain; Structural Design (track)
Ali Ali – Construction, Cost analysis, & Project planning
Matt Brown – Architecture & Structural Design (station)
Alan MacPherson – Geotechnical Engineering & Foundation Design
Erika Whitaker-Davis – Transportation Engineering (track)
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Elin Jensen
Outside Advisor: Marsden Burger
Track Location (earth.google.com, Revised by Erika)
Lawrence Tech University
Campus Environments
Our project is titled "Lawrence Technological University Campus Improvements". The students involved are Tamika Ali-Yerima and Leah Tapp.
The project is proposing to incorporate new drainage systems and new transportation elements into a new campus layout that uses sustainable development methods and traffic-calming techniques to seamlessly blend the new elements with the existing elements to create a campus that is aesthetically enjoyable and friendly to both pedestrian and vehicle users. The proposed drainage elements include bioswales, underground storage, and porous pavements; these will serve to eliminate excess storm discharge from the campus to bring the campus into compliance with current stormwater regulations. The transportation elements include new parking lot designs, a new road design, medians, and signal design. The new road and parking lot medians will separate pedestrian and vehicle paths to increase the safety of all users. The new parking lot layouts that will be investigated for the project will try to increase the number of parking spaces within the existing lot limits. Finally, the proposed signal design will seek to better serve the evening traffic patterns of the university.
Existing Campus 
Proposed Campus