Leaders Sign Norfolk Coastal Storm Risk Management Design Agreement

The Norfolk Coastal Storm Risk Management project just got another boost from city officials and the Army Corps’ Norfolk District.

Col. Patrick Kinsman, district commander, and City Manager Doug Smith signed the design agreement Friday, clearing a path for USACE and Norfolk to share costs in funding and developing full designs for the first construction feature.

Its execution allows start of the Preconstruction Engineering and Design, or PED, phase.

“The PED phase, which is planned for two years, depends on full and continuous funding,” said Holly Carpenter, Norfolk District’s project manager. The project received $400,000 from the Army Civil Works program’s Fiscal Year 2019 Work Plan to initiate the PED phase.

She also said that total PED phase costs are estimated at $8.3 million, with USACE covering 65% and the city, its nonfederal sponsor, picking up 35%.

“Norfolk District and the city are working on detailed scoping for the activities to be completed during the PED phase,” Carpenter added. “The first construction feature to be fully designed is planned as a 1.3-mile segment of berm and floodwall extending from Harbor Park and terminating at the existing downtown floodwall.”

Other potential activities targeted during full-design development include utility and topographic surveys, geotechnical and cultural-resources investigations, interior-drainage analysis, a value-engineering study, acquisition of construction permits, and a plans-and-specifications package ready for contractor bids.

The Norfolk Coastal Storm Risk Management Study examined coastal-storm risk management and resilience-planning initiatives and projects underway at USACE and other federal, state and local agencies. It recommended a $1.4 billion project featuring storm-surge barriers, nearly 8 miles of floodwall, a 1-mile levee, 11 tide gates, and seven pump and power stations.

That feasibility stage culminated in early February when Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite signed the Chief of Engineers Report and triggered the PED phase.

Norfolk CSRM was the first completed feasibility study following the larger North Atlantic Coast Comprehensive Study, which USACE tackled after Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The feasibility study was approved by a Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works resolution.

In order for construction to start in Norfolk, the project must be authorized by Congress, budgeted and a Project Partnership Agreement executed with the city.