Water/Environment
Virginia Beach Begins Initial Phase of $518M Flood Protection Program
The new permanent pump station will replace four interim stormwater pumps at the recently completed tide gate, vastly expanding capacity to accommodate extreme rainfall events.
Construction is set to begin in July on a seven-project program designed to improve stormwater management and reduce flood risks for thousands of Virginia Beach, Va., residents.
Totaling $518 million, the program—known as the Windsor Woods, Princess Anne Plaza and The Lakes Stormwater Improvements “mega-bundle”—is using progressive design-build to implement a variety of flood protection infrastructure elements in low-elevation neighborhoods where increasingly frequent heavy rain events overwhelm limited or non-existent stormwater drainage infrastructure.
FlatironDragados is leading the construction effort following a two-year collaborative preconstruction phase with the City of Virginia Beach and design partner Arcadis. Jacobs Engineering is serving as the city’s primary engineering and resilience consultant.
The program’s first sub-project, the $127-million Windsor Woods Pump Station, will work with the recently completed Windsor Woods Tide Gate to help lower water levels in Lake Windsor prior to extreme tidal events and large forecasted storm events. With a capacity of 432,000 gallons per minute, the new pump station will help create stormwater storage capacity in the lakes and creeks, and assist with moving stormwater during major rainfall events.
Later this year, FlatironDragados will begin construction of flood barriers composed of earthen berms and concrete walls to isolate the tide gate and pump station from overland sheet flow, backflow and storm surge during extreme events.
Five other sub-projects will incorporate similar flood protection infrastructure systems at other vulnerable locations. Funding is being provided via a 2021 bond referendum that passed overwhelmingly amid still-fresh memories of major flooding following 2016’s Hurricane Matthew. That storm—the third major tropical event to strike southeastern Virginia in six weeks—dumped 14 in. of rain on the area in just 20 hours.
