As manager for Site and Infrastructure Development at Virginia Tech, David Dent is juggling many responsibilities and at least 20 projects at any given time.  His overriding goal of zero increases in pollutant discharge from new projects is his most ambition project of all.

To achieve this, he and his engineers are making erosion and sedimentation control recommendations for all Tech projects, revamping stormwater collection systems, and planning bioretention cells and rain gardens to better manage stormwater.  These small landscaped, graded areas are constructed with a special soil mix to filter and control runoff.  He has assistance from Tech's biological systems engineering and civil engineering departments.  The first two will be at Stanger Street and Prices Fork Road and at the Smithfield Plantation parking lot.

"We want to do the right thing," says Dent, a former A&A design engineer.

Stroubles Creek, which flows from the Virginia Tech Duck Pond, is listed by DEQ as an impaired stream because of excess sediment.  Tech is committed to managing stormwater in an environmentally effective manner without reaching or surpassing their functional capacity, he says.

Dent's province at Tech is site, transportation, and public-service utilities - project management, planning, and design for stormwater, wastewater, and water, as well as coordination with electric, gas, and communications lines during construction projects.  They range from site design for a new traffic signal at the Southgate/Duck Pond Drive intersection to improvements on control of water quality and quantity at the Duck Pond to re-configuring parking lots for more space accessibility. They're also doing design and site work on new bike paths along Smithfield Road and connecting Southgate Drive with Cranwell International Center.

Dent has worked with A&A on both the Southgate/Tech Center Drive signal, as well as a comprehensive stormwater survey of campus to assist in modeling stormwater.  In order to meet deadlines, Dent's group subcontracts some large projects.  His department's busy season begins right after Tech's commencement, when 75 percent of their projects are constructed. From late August to early May, they do the most of their planning and designing.