Acknowledgements

The Loma Alta Trailheads success with our on-field survey and analysis can be attributed to the direction and assistance of Dr. Chun-Hsing Jun Ho, Dr. Jeffrey Heiderschidt, Professor Mark Lamer, Professor Adam Bringhurst, and Rich Goepfrich.

The deflectometer that Dr. Ho lent our team was immensely useful in analyzing the present soil at the site, as well as learning how to use the equipment which is used in the real-world engineering field. Professors Lamer and Bringhurst coordinated with the team at obscure times of the day to check out equipment and learn quickly how to use it effectively. Dr. Heiderschidt kept us informed on the travel details and guided us throughout the workday making sure we were on track and collecting meaningful data, always being open to questions when the team was stuck. Lastly, our client Rich Goepfrich gave us a great amount of encouragement with our challenge of designing a parking lot for the National Park, which from seeing it firsthand, is needed immensely.

Site Visit and Location

The parking lot is located off of S Camino Loma Alta at its most northern point. The current parking lot holds about at most 8 sedan sized vehicles, which is not adequate for the amount of foot traffic this trailhead encounters. The current lot is surrounded by shrubs, cacti, and rocks. The lot neighbors private land on its western border which the team cannot design on. The east boundary is the national park and cannot also, be designed on.

On January 28-30^th, the Client and Engineering team met at the project site for the Loma Alta Trailhead, at Saguaro National Park. While in Tucson, the team conducted a survey, collected soil samples, vegetation survey, visitor count, and compaction test. The team was also able to visualize the site better and gain a better understanding of the task at hand.