NORFOLK, Va. — A 10-year-long initiative is starting to take shape. Norfolk city leaders and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) held a roundtable on Tuesday providing updates on the city's Coastal Storm Risk Management Project.
“We’re really excited about phase 1A because it does include the flood wall but also two pump stations and a tide gate,” USACE Coastal Storm Risk Program Manager Kristin Mazur said.
Mazur said the designs for Phase 1A are almost done. The flood wall would go from Campostella to the Berkley Bridge. She said one pump station would sit at Harbor Park and the other would be at Newton Creek.
She said they expect to have it finished by the fall. Those items will be the first construction features for the Norfolk Coastal Storm Risk Management Project.
“We’ll look to those construction features to gain insight on how to implement the best designs for the future,” Mazur said.
Norfolk city officials have collaborated with USACE on this $2.6 billion initiative. The full project includes flood mitigation features like flood walls, levees and nature-based solutions. As the design process continues, project managers are collecting field data across the city.
“Primarily related to soil conditions and things like land surveying,” Norfolk Chief Resilience Officer Kyle Spencer said.
This information will go to project engineers and scientists to enhance designs and update any costs if necessary. Engineers are also re-evaluating plans for home elevations and floodproofing in areas like Berkley and Campostella. They said residents want to see similar features like surge barriers and levees which are expected to be built in the downtown area.
“It’s an underserved community and we’re re-looking at it for environmental justice concerns,” said Col. Brian Hallberg, the commander of USACE Norfolk District.
Spencer adds the team will conduct studies on how these mitigation features impact other cities.
"To study these structures and the way the hydrodynamics are going to work before the project and after the project," he said. "That information will help paint that picture a little bit better."