VIRGINIA BEACH — U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine on Wednesday announced $55.985 million in new federal funding for communities in Hampton Roads, Richmond, and on the Eastern Shore for water infrastructure improvements.
More than $28 million of that money will go to Virginia Beach:
- $10 million for Lynnhaven River Basin to help restore wetlands and fish habitat, reduce nutrient and sediment pollution, provide flood control benefits, and reestablish impaired oyster and scallop populations in the Lynnhaven River and tributaries.
- $17.6 million for Virginia Beach Hurricane Protection to support dredging and beach re-nourishment to ease impacts of previous extreme weather events.
- $200,000 for Rudee Inlet – This funding supports maintenance dredging to remove shoals from the inlet.
- $ 325,000 for Lynnhaven Inlet – This funding supports maintenance dredging to remove shoaling in the entrance channel and turning basin.
“Each project will have substantial positive impacts on the City of Virginia Beach, its businesses and residents,” Virginia Beach Mayor Louis Jones said in a prepared statement.
The funding is awarded through the Army Corps of Engineers’ “Work Plan,” a source of funds provided by Congress for the Corps to allocate to ongoing projects, according to a news release from Kaine’s office.
“From dredging and beach replenishment to cleaner rivers to new oyster habitats to new infrastructure for the Port of Virginia, these investments will help us protect coastal communities and the environment while growing the regional tourism and port commerce economies,” the senators said in a joint news release.
The rest of the money:
- $5 million for Norfolk Harbor and Channels – Craney Island (Portsmouth) – This funding will expand the dredge fill capacity of the Craney Island Dredged Material Management Area, which will pave the way for a future Craney Island Marine Terminal that will nearly double the capacity of the Port of Virginia.
- $5.35 million for Norfolk Harbor and Craney Island (Portsmouth) – This funding will support maintenance to reduce shoaling in Norfolk Harbor and around Craney Island, as well as perform dike maintenance and replace one of six primary spillboxes at the Craney Island Dredge Material Management Area.
- $3.96 million for Donor and Energy Transfer Ports – This funding will be provided to a dedicated account for ports around the nation that either pay more into the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund than they receive in benefits from it or ports that are critical to the movement of energy commodities, of which the Port of Virginia is one.
- $400,000 for Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway North Landing Bridge (Chesapeake) – This funding will continue the study that will culminate in a plan to replace this obsolete 1955 bridge over the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal connecting Chesapeake and Virginia Beach.
- $10.7 million for James River Channel – This funding supports maintenance dredging to remove shoals that accumulate as much as 8 feet annually in portions of the James River. It will also fund surveys to monitor and react to changing river conditions.
- $250,000 for Chincoteague Inlet – This funding supports maintenance dredging to remove shoals in the inlet and surveys to monitor and report channel conditions to users, and to coordinate with the Coast Guard on buoys and channel markers.
- $450,000 for Hampton Roads Prevention of Obstructive Deposits – This funding will help patrol, investigate and coordinate with state and federal agencies to upgrade facilities to detect and prevent deposit of refuse and hazardous materials into navigable waterways.
- $1.75 million for Waterway on the Coast of Virginia (90-mile channel from the MD-VA line in Chincoteague Bay to the Chesapeake Bay) – This funding supports maintenance dredging to provide vessels a protected 90-mile north-south route connecting Eastern Shore harbors to one another and to the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean.
