The City of Norfolk, Virginia has selected a joint venture to provide program and project management services in support of its $2.6 billion. Coastal Storm Risk Management Program, according to an AECOM press release. The Norfolk Resilience Partners JV consists of Dallas-based AECOM; Moffatt & Nichol, based in Long Beach, Calif.; and Volkert, based in Mobile, Alabama.
The joint Army Corps of Engineers and city program aims to increase the resilience of Norfolk’s infrastructure to climate change, protect it from coastal flooding and mitigate damage from major storms. It is one of most important infrastructure efforts in the city’s historyaccording to NPR, and just one of many similar projects the USACE is planning along the US coast from New York to Texas.
Norfolk is second only to New Orleans for coastal storm risk, according to the city. For five consecutive years, Norfolk has been the city most affected by sea level rise on the East Coast, according to 2023 research from the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences at William & Mary, with changes caused by warming oceans and sinking land.
The new resilience features will include a system of nearly eight miles of flood walls with seawalls, surge barriers, 11 tidal gates and 10 pumping stations. The project will also incorporate nature-based solutions such as oyster reefs, living shorelines and wetland mitigation.
Under the single award contract, Norfolk Resilience Partners will provide program and project management, engineering and design, real estate services, public engagement, utility coordination, environmental and cultural resource assessments and compliance, grant management and more. AECOM will act as managing partner of the JV.
The project will be divided into five implementation phases, according to the release: four phases associated with four watershed areas and a fifth phase to provide non-structural solutions throughout the city, such as home elevations, basement fills and waterproofing .
Congress recently allocated $400 million to the project in the Jobs and Infrastructure Investment Act, according to NPR, and the federal government has pledged to cover 65 percent of the total cost. That still leaves Norfolk on the hook for $931 million, which it hopes to split with the state.
