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Combating Coastal Storm Damage

Willoughby Spit, Ocean View residents voice concerns, offer remedies during workshop

Story by Jerry Rogers
Norfolk District Public Affairs Office

NORFOLK, Va.— The Norfolk District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the City of Norfolk held a public workshop Sept. 18, to brief citizens on a Corps study to evaluate the feasibility of providing a coastal storm damage reduction project for the Willoughby Spit and Ocean View area of Norfolk, Va.

More than 45 area residents attended the workshop, held at the Mary P. Pretlow Anchor Branch Library in Ocean View, including Archie Walpole, a staff member from Congresswoman Thelma Drake's office.

Following introductory remarks by Corps and Norfolk City officials, including a brief history of the study area, Walpole announced that Congresswoman Drake was successful in getting $400,000 placed in the Fiscal Year 2009 House Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee report. The House and Senate Conference Committee will next take up approval of the proposed project funds.

Corps Technical Team Leader, Jeff Strahan, followed with a detailed presentation explaining the project's genesis and the way ahead.

Congress authorized the 1983 Corps feasibility study in 1986. In the early 1990s, the City of Norfolk, working with the U.S. Navy, eliminated the need for the federal project by using sand from Navy dredging projects to complete two major beach nourishment efforts along the project area shoreline. From late 1990s to early 2000s, Norfolk, in partnership with the Commonwealth of Virginia, also constructed a series of offshore breakwaters that proved effective protective measures in reducing the rate of shoreline recession.

In 2005, at the request of Norfolk and by direction of Congress, the Corps began to reevaluate the 1983 federal coastal storm damage reduction project to provide a comprehensive plan of protection.

"We are seeking to reduce coastal storm damages along Willoughby Spit and Ocean View," explained Strahan. "The damage comes in the form of wave attack, where the waves actually beat against residents' homes; inundation, where water rises and floods homes; and erosion, where the storm erodes the land out, around or underneath homes. Erosion is the most common problem in this study area.

"We will evaluate different alternatives in the coming months to determine how best to solve this problem. Our evaluation will include the study of potential structural measures, such as beach fill; groins; offshore breakwaters; revetments; bulkheads; and seawall; and non-structural measures – flood plain regulations; permanent relocation; flood proofing; flood warning system; and the National Flood Insurance Program. These various structural and non-structural measures could collectively be used or in combination to reduce the risk of coastal storm damage and losses."

Strahan's presentation gave way to a lively question and answer session. Well-informed citizens, many second-generation residents of the Willoughby Spit and Ocean View shoreline study area, surfaced a wide variety of project questions and offered just as many potential remedies.

  • How will the beach sand distribution work, since not all areas have the same needs?
  • Will the fill sand match the existing sand? Several people commented that they didn't want sand that was predominantly shell hash.
  • To prevent sand from accumulating at the tip of Willoughby Spit, can you construct a terminal groin/jetty and redistribute the sand eastward to keep it out of the adjacent channels that boaters use?
  • Will the project address existing dunes and future dune construction?
  • Is there a berm width target profile for the beach?
  • Will the Corps study preclude Norfolk City interim action?
  • How would this federal project affect existing storm water drainpipes?
  • Can you address individual beak waters that are making some areas erode faster?

Strahan and Corps Project Manager, Robert Pretlow, along with Norfolk officials, Lee Rosenberg and James D. White, listened attentively to each citizens' question and provided measured, thoughtful answers while assuring residents that their ideas and recommendations would be considered.

With a federal-City of Norfolk cost-share of 75, 25 respectively, the study is set for completion in 2010, subject to availability of federal funds. In addition, Norfolk's Lee Rosenberg informed residents that the city continues to provide appropriate shoreline protection measures. Currently, said Rosenberg, the city will undertake beach renourishment in East Ocean View, and will construct five additional offshore breakwaters in the Oaks II community of East Ocean View.

For more information on the Willoughby Spit and Ocean View Shoreline Protection study, contact Corps Project Manager Robert Pretlow, at 757-201-7385; Lee Rosenberg of Norfolk, at 757-664-4373.

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