Construction will begin in July on a seven-project program designed to improve stormwater management and reduce flood risks for thousands of residents in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Totaling $518 million, the program, known as the “mega-package” of Windsor, Princess Anne Plaza and The Lakes stormwater improvements, is using a progressive design to implement a variety of flood protection infrastructure elements in low-lying neighborhoods where increasingly frequent heavy rainfall events will overwhelm limited or non-existent stormwater drainage infrastructure.
FlatironDragados is leading the construction effort after a two-year collaborative preconstruction phase with the City of Virginia Beach and design partner Arcadis. Jacobs Engineering serves as the city’s lead engineering and resilience consultant.
The program’s first subproject, the $127 million Windsor Woods Pump Station, will work with the recently completed Windsor Woods Tidal Gate to help lower water levels in Windsor Lake ahead of extreme tidal events and expected large storms. With a capacity of 432,000 gallons per minute, the new pump station will help create stormwater storage capacity in lakes and streams and help move stormwater during large rain events.
Later this year, FlatironDragados will begin construction of flood barriers composed of earthen berms and concrete walls to isolate the tidal gate and pumping station from sheet flow, ebb and surge during extreme events.
Another five sub-projects will incorporate similar flood protection infrastructure systems in other vulnerable locations. The funding is being provided through a 2021 bond referendum that passed overwhelmingly amid still-fresh memories of major flooding after Hurricane Matthew in 2016. That storm, the third major tropical event to hit southeastern Virginia in six weeks, dumped 14 inches of rain on the area in just 20 hours.
