THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, September 17, 1995             TAG: 9509160129
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON    PAGE: 30   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER 
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   62 lines

CONGRESSIONAL FUNDING QUESTION FAILS TO DELAY HURRICANE PROJECT ALTHOUGH ITS FATE LIES WITH BUDGET BILL ACTION, THE PLAN IS GOING TO BID IN SPRING, ARCHITECT SAYS.

The controversial $100 million hurricane protection plan for the resort and North End beaches is moving ahead despite the uncertainty of congressional funding.

The project will go to bid in the spring of 1996, Resort Area Advisory Commission members were told Thursday by a representative of the Army Corps of Engineers.

Funding for the plan is tied in with a budget bill now before Congress and its fate depends upon the deliberations of a House and Senate conference committee, said Jack Kennedy, Army Corps of Engineers architect for the storm protection plan.

``As far as I know there's no opposition to it,'' Kennedy said in response to a question from commissioner Robert M. Tata Jr.

``Is anybody looking out for it?'' Tata asked.

Yes, said Kennedy, U.S. Sen. John Warner, R-Va. ``He's a defender of coastal projects.''

Kennedy noted that the project would be built - if funded - without the controversial concrete crosswalks originally designed for North End beaches.

The deletion of the crosswalks was made after Army engineers were blistered by criticism from North End civic leaders in recent meetings.

In place of the bulky concrete structures, Army and city engineers have agreed to place ground-level wooden walkways over a replenished dune line that is part of the hurricane protection plan.

Public access to North End beaches would remain much as it is now, Kennedy said, and Oceanfront homeowners would be allowed to retain access as well.

What happens if the hurricane protection plan is not funded? asked commission member Rick Anoia. What happens to the city's portion of the revenue earmarked for the project?

Would the money then go to expanding the Pavilion Convention Center as originally planned?

There is no assurance that Congress will approve the funding, Kennedy said. ``Congress is going to do what Congress is going to do.''

Virginia Beach would be required to pay 35 percent of the cost of the protection project, while the federal government would contribute 65 percent.

The status of the protection plan was really a footnote to Kennedy's appearance at the advisory commission meeting. He was there, he said, to ask the commissioners what kind of artistic or design treatment they wanted on the seawall part of the project. This would extend from Rudee Inlet to 58th Street. A wider Boardwalk would cap the seawall from Rudee to 40th Street.

Kennedy said molded or etched designs along the four-mile seawall would offer beach-goers a pleasing alternative to a drab expanse of concrete.

Commission chairman Roger Newill appointed a three-member subcommittee to come up with designs and to study types of railings that would be suitable for the widened Boardwalk. by CNB