THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 8, 1995 TAG: 9510060173
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBBIE MESSINA, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
Virginia Beach will be getting about half the sand for its annual resort beach replenishment from the dredging of a new channel needed to build a second crossing of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.
About 70,000 cubic yards of beach quality sand will be dredged next spring from the Chesapeake Bay to create a channel close to the shoreline to accommodate the barges that will construct the parallel bridge span.
The $200 million project does not include new tunnels. They would cost about $800 million and will likely be added sometime after the turn of the century.
The dredged sand will be placed in the city's Lynnhaven Inlet sand stockpile at the foot of the Lesner Bridge. It will either be pumped or transported by barge to the desired site by the bridge-tunnel contractor.
There will be no cost to the city.
``This seems to work out real well for everybody,'' said James K. Brookshire, executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel Commission, about the preliminary agreement. A formal agreement is being prepared.
The arrangement provides the Tunnel District Authority with an economical and environmentally feasible way of disposing of the dredge material, while at the same time providing the city with a new source of beach replenishment sand.
The Tunnel District Authority was required to put the sand on public property, and the next closest alternative was a 35-mile round-trip to a site offshore.A round trip to the Lesner stockpile is about seven miles. It is possible, however, that the dredge material could be pumped directly from the channel to the stockpile. The contractor is now exploring its options.
Pumping the sand directly onto Bayfront beaches was considered. But that would have required acquiring public easements from property owners, all of whom were not willing to participate.
The city's only concern now is whether the sand will be available in time for the annual spring truck haul to replenish the resort beach, said Phillip J. Roehrs, city coastal engineer.
From about mid-March to mid-May, the city trucks about 150,000 cubic yards of sand either from the Lesner stockpile, which contains dredge material from the Lynnhaven Inlet, or from an inland borrow pit. The Lesner stockpile now has about 50,000 cubic yards of sand.
If the Chesapeake Bay sand does not arrive in time, the city will have to contract for sand at a local borrow pit.
The Army Corps of Engineers picks up 65 percent of the beach nourishment cost.
Construction began over the summer on the second Chesapeake Bay bridge.
The new bridge is being built to the west of the existing span and will serve southbound traffic from the Eastern Shore on U.S. Route 13. It is scheduled to be completed by September 1998.
All traffic then will be routed to the new span, and the old span will be closed and refurbished by July 1999.
KEYWORDS: BEACH REPLENISHMENT EROSION by CNB