THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, June 25, 1996 TAG: 9606250231
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 56 lines
The city and the Army Corps of Engineers signed an agreement Monday to put into motion a 25-year-old hurricane-protection plan for the Oceanfront.
Though the document means the government is officially locked into doing the job, it doesn't mean Congress is locked into paying for it, U.S. Sen. John W. Warner and Rep. Owen B. Pickett warned a gathering of local and Corps of Engineers officials.
The Clinton administration opposes funding the $102 million project, Warner said at signing ceremonies at the Ramada hotel at 57th Street, and getting Congress to override the president would be a tall order.
``There'll be no more projects like this,'' Warner told local officials and urged them to work hard for continued federal spending on the hurricane-protection construction in coming years.
``You've got to get annual funding for the next three or four years for $100 million - it's absolutely essential,'' he said.
Construction would take four years and would continue uninterrupted, summer and winter, until the job is finished.
The project is designed to shield resort and North End beachfronts from major oceanborne storms. It also would create a new look for the Boardwalk.
City officials say the project is essential to protect the tourism industry as well as upscale residential areas bordering the sea.
The city would be obligated to help the federal government pay for beach replenishment and maintenance of the storm-protection improvements over the next 50 years.
Bids on the project's first phase will be opened July 30 and construction should start Oct. 1, said Jim Creighton, project manager for the Corps of Engineers.
This would include construction of a new seawall and wider Boardwalk from Rudee Inlet to 8th Street at an estimated cost of $8 million.
City Council members, concerned that Congress would be slow in appropriating its 65 percent share of the project, voted two weeks ago to cover the entire cost of the first phase. The council members believe that Congress can be persuaded to pay its portion and continue paying it over the life of the project.
The project involves five major elements:
Reconstructing the seawall from Rudee Inlet to 58th Street.
Widening the Boardwalk from Rudee Inlet to 40th Street.
Building up 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 renovating a pumping station at 79th Street. ILLUSTRATION: An artist's view of the planned Oceanfront
storm-safety improvements shows a new seawall and a wider boardwalk,
which will stretch from Rudee Inlet, at bottom, to 8th Street.
KEYWORDS: HURRICANE PROTECTION PLAN by CNB