Otterdale Road Blackman Creek Crossing; The Implications of Dominant Knowledge Bases in Structural Engineering 102 views

This portfolio is an exploration of my concurrent work on the Otterdale Road Drainage Improvement project as a technical capstone and the STS research paper. My sociotechnical investigation in the latter is focused on the dominant employment of a technical or practical knowledge base by structural engineers in the design process. More specifically, the implications of this trend as it translates to engineers’ ability to contextualize their work and subsequently influence some of the project outcomes. My technical capstone is reflective of structural engineers’ real-world role in designing a new crossing to reduce severe flooding. My teams’ final design is a product of technical work such as software modeling and decisions made using a practical understanding of how the construction will affect the surrounding community. Thus, the commentary that I propose in the STS paper surrounding the profession of structural engineering can be directly affirmed in-part by my experience on the Otterdale capstone. Furthermore, in using a sociotechnical lens to view my own technical case I have a greater ability to interpret other structural case studies as supporting evidence for my claims. A framework developed by scholars on the basis of Frame Theory will be used to enrich my analysis and build on existing work. The culmination of these works has been formative in my own perspective for a future in structural engineering practice. P.E’s from Rinker Design Associates (RDA) serve as our team's industry advisors and living records of the project. RDA professionals from various disciplines mentor us closely by ensuring our design choices accurately reflect project constraints. Our objective is to redesign the Blackman Creek crossing as one phase in The Otterdale Road Drainage Improvement project in Chesterfield County, VA. The existing crossing was designed decades prior to convey a less severe storm compared to the now present 100-year design guideline for modern climate resiliency. Historically, the land cover for much of the county has been dominated by agriculture. However, addition of impervious land from residential development has increased the volume of runoff. During intense storms, these flows overtop the banks and flood the Otterdale Road crossing, causing frequent road closures and obstructing ambulance and fire service access from reaching surrounding inhabitants. The outdated bridge design standard and increase in runoff act as combined forces, flooding the road up to 3 feet for 100-year storm events. This problem set-up explains the urgency of the issue and highlights real people affected by the flooding. My STS research paper is an investigation of the question: How do structural engineers' dominant use of technical or practical knowledge influence their ability to contextualize design work and change project outcomes? In order to answer this question I provide background that builds the following claim. There is a problematic employment of technical and practical knowledge used by structural engineers that can be found in undergraduate classrooms, practice, and the debris of tragic project failures. Then in the following sections I use anthropologic studies, theoretical frameworks, case studies, and my own experience to fully understand how this problematic perspective arises and illustrate the outcomes. Additionally, I expand on the arguments that define this problem to support the idea that a balanced employment of practical and theoretical knowledge contributes to robust designs that serve the most stakeholders.

BS (Bachelor of Science)

Structural Engineering; Engineering Epistemology ; Frame Theory; Civil Engineering

School of Engineering and Applied Science Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering Technical Advisor: Jonathan Goodall STS Advisor: Coleen Carrigan Technical Team Members: Finn Kelleher, Paige Linton, Julia Miele, Bladen Williams

English

All rights reserved by the author (no additional license for public reuse)

2026-05-07