Designed for Discovery
Posted on May 19, 2025
A team of civil engineering seniors at South turned a capstone project into a real-world design that will serve generations of marine science students to come.
The team was tasked with transforming a slice of the USA Foundation’s gifted 60-acre site on Aloe Bay off Dauphin Island into an outdoor classroom for students in the Stokes School of Marine and Environmental Sciences — as well as visitors to the site including local middle-schoolers, adventurers and marine professionals. The South Delta Engineering team — site lead Greyson Layton, geotechnical lead Matthew Delano, coastal lead Keith Edwards, transportation lead Jordan Eggleston and structural lead Cody Leggett – kicked the project off last December.
The centerpiece: a 240-foot sustainable pier stretching into the bay. The initial design included a straight-line pier, but it was adjusted to reduce complications with a nearby shore restoration project. It is designed to extend 120 feet, angling 45 degrees for the remaining 120 feet. That shift will allow the school’s new 35-foot research vessel to reach farther and deeper into Aloe Channel, with minimal dredging.
The design calls for southern pine timber rather than concrete to reduce cost and environmental impact. ThruFlow decking, a lightweight and durable material, adds storm resistance by allowing water to pass through during rough weather.
The project also includes a boat slip, a protective boat lift, a 40x45-foot boathouse, and a kayak launch — all accessible by a five-foot-wide elevated walkway — and erosion control. A rope-and-post fence will mark the site’s boundaries.
With students in mind, the designers added the kayak launch and crab deck to allow more individual, hands-on research.
“They’ll be able to launch kayaks right off the shore. They don’t have to use the research vessel,” Layton said. “They can also use the crab deck to go down and do research along the shoreline. If they’re looking into any kind of vegetation or wildlife along the shoreline, they can just get there off the boathouse and do their research near-shore and offshore.”
Because the facility is a low-traffic area, where many locals use golf carts, the team was able to incorporate a nearby parking lot into its plans to minimize the location’s footprint and any impact on the neighborhood. The biggest challenge, the team said, was staying within the $300,000 budget.
By April, South Delta Engineering presented its final proposal to a panel of local engineering professionals and, a week later, to the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, which provided a $250,000 grant for the project. Each student also was preparing to begin full-time jobs after May graduation.
The response was overwhelmingly positive, Layton said. The engineering firm that takes on the final project is likely to follow the students’ design closely.
The team worked with Dr. Sean Powers of the Stokes School of Marine and Environmental Sciences as it developed its plans.
“We were on Zoom conferences with him several times a week, getting his suggestions and then showing him what we had planned,” Eggleston said. “He was very specific about what was needed, and in the end, he really liked what we put together.”
South Delta’s faculty mentor was Dr. Shenghua Wu, an associate professor in the Department of Civil, Coastal and Environmental Engineering. Wu said team members had to step out of their professional comfort zones to create solutions tailored to the site’s unique coastal conditions. This required a broad range of skills in applying standards, specifications and design codes and in creating innovative solutions.
“The project is highly practical, incorporating real-life constraints,” Layton said. “It went far beyond technical skills like drawing, calculation and creativity. It encouraged us to think critically about how to optimize the use of limited resources.”
