THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 12, 1996 TAG: 9606120340
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 46 lines
The City Council agreed Tuesday to ante up its 35 percent share of a $102 million Hurricane Protection project that has been 25 years in the making and will shield resort and North End beachfronts from major storms.
The council's action obligates the city to spend $36 million over four years to pay for the federally sponsored project, which will extend from Rudee Inlet to 89th Street, and to maintain it for 50 years.
The first phase of the project will include construction of a new seawall and wider Boardwalk from Rudee Inlet to Eighth Street at a cost of $3.7 million. The sum includes the federal government's share.
City officials, concerned that Congress will be slow in appropriating its portion, want to proceed promptly with the project and have the government pay its share later. Congress has appropriated $1.1 million toward the job, but additional funding is uncertain.
``Our feeling is it would be a rare or unique event for the federal government to back out,'' said Phillip J. Roehrs, city coastal engineer.
U.S. Sen. John W. Warner, the winner of Tuesday's state Republican primary and a consistent backer of the hurricane protection plan, better known locally as the ``seawall project,'' is being counted on to help continue the flow of federal money.
Bids on the first phase of the seawall project are due in mid or late August, Roehrs said. Construction would start in October.
Completion of the first segment would take about a year and construction on the second phase - most likely from 35th to 40th streets - would begin in the fall of 1997.
The project has five major elements:
Reconstructing the seawall from Rudee Inlet to 58th Street.
Widening the Boardwalk from Rudee Inlet to 40th Street.
Augmenting the dunes from 58th to 89th streets.
Widening the beach from Rudee Inlet to 89th Street.
Installing stormwater pumping stations at 16th, 42nd and 64th streets and upgrading an existing pumping station at 79th Street.
Construction would take four years and would continue uninterrupted - summer included - until the job is finished. The city then would be obligated to help the federal government pay for maintenance of the storm protection improvements over the next 50 years.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH CITY COUNCIL by CNB