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  4. Rising above the Flood

Rising sea levels and a significant increase in the severity of extreme weather over the past few decades has heightened the risk of chronic flooding for many residents along the Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the U.S.

To prepare the community against these increasing weather risks, the City of Virginia Beach created the Eastern Shore Drive Drainage Improvements Project. Our water resources professionals are collaborating with city officials, residents and other local stakeholders to build a safer, more resilient environment for their community.

“It is a significant flood protection project, and it’s a priority project for the city’s Flood Protection Program that was voted in by the residents in 2021,” said Melissa Simpson, PE, project manager, east stormwater strategic growth lead and senior vice president at WSP.

By leveraging our deep network of internal resources, we’ve developed a plan for an innovative, comprehensive stormwater management system which will allow the community to quickly recover from significant storm events.

Client

  • City of Virginia Beach

Project Status

  • Ongoing

The Eastern Shore Drive area is prone to frequent tidal flooding, made worse by heavy rainfall from major storm events.

Flooding Frequently

The Eastern Shore Drive project watershed is located at the convergence of the Atlantic Ocean, Chesapeake Bay and Lynnhaven River in the Hampton Roads area. It’s a dynamic coastal environment that’s prone to frequent tidal flooding, which can be exacerbated by heavy rainfall from major storm events.

Originally developed in the 1950s, the area was without a comprehensive stormwater management system, but the Eastern Shore Drive project aims to correct this by adding storm sewer systems, upgrading pipes and inlets to capture stormwater runoff, elevating roadways, and installing new pump stations with automated tide gates.

As a partner on the project team since 2015, our firm has been providing a range of services, including hydrologic and hydraulic modeling, infrastructure improvement alternatives evaluation, preliminary through final design, environmental permitting, construction oversight, public outreach, stakeholder coordination, city leadership briefings and grant management support.

“When everything is built, we’re going to protect the upstream watershed from tidal flooding up to the 100-year flood elevation — an elevation of seven feet within the watershed — which has about a one percent chance of occurring in any given year,” Gay said. “If it rains when the tide is that high, the pump stations we’re designing will provide protection for a 10-year design rainfall event, which equates to almost seven inches of rainfall in 24 hours and has about a ten percent chance of occurring in any given year.”

Number of benefiting properties and facilities
600+
FEMA Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant
$25.1 million
100-year flood elevation this system is designed for
7 feet

Pumping Stormwater Efficiently

The project’s extensive drainage improvements are being implemented in the community surrounding Eastern Shore Drive , spanning from the Lynnhaven Bay Inlet east to First Landing Park. Drainage improvements will extend north and south of Shore Drive to serve the local neighborhoods.

These improvements include elevated roadways, two pump stations and automated tide gates to protect the community against critical flooding elevations.

“The system was originally designed for three pump stations, but we came up with a more efficient, two-station design instead, which helped save an estimated $11.7 million in the project’s budget,” Gay said.

These pump stations are interconnected, and the system allows for regular tidal ebb and flow in the watershed’s main drainage canal during normal conditions. During storm events, the main automated tide gate will close, and the pump stations will provide pre-storm drawdown and bypass pumping of rainfall runoff around the gate.

©WSP
WSP designed a 6’x4’ box culvert which was constructed in 2020/2021 to replace two existing 30” pipes. The existing, twin-30” pipes drained a relatively large upstream area and this improvement provided a significant interim hydraulic benefit.

When the city knows that a large storm is supposed to roll through, they will start the pump stations to create extra storage within the main drainage canal, so that they’re able to better protect against both rainfall- and tidal-induced flooding.

©WSP
Rendering of the Pump Station 1D site, showing (from left to right) the tide gate, pump discharges/wet well, control building, external generator and stormwater park.

Leveraging Our Resource Network

Plans, specifications and estimates for the four largest sections of the project are being finalized. A contractor is expected to be on board by winter 2025, with construction anticipated to last three years.

The team has leveraged WSP’s depth of resources and relationships to deliver and excel at each stage of the project.

“A project of this magnitude requires a great deal of communication, coordination, patience and teamwork to be successful,” Simpson said.

For this project, we applied for and were awarded a $25.1 million FEMA Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant. BRIC is a program that supports states, local and territorial governments and Tribal Nations as they work to reduce their hazard risk.

“WSP collaborated with multiple adjacent projects and took the lead in coordinating stormwater resilience protection for the overall watershed,” Gay said. “We’ve become a trusted partner and are proud of a solid working relationship with the City of Virginia Beach.”

Engaging, Serving Stakeholders

Throughout the project, we collaborated closely with city leadership, oversight boards and elected officials. The team holds monthly meetings with the city’s project management team and regularly meets with other city departments, especially during siting of key system installations in a tightly developed urban area.

The team supports the city’s public meetings with residents, businesses and civic groups, encouraging input from community coalitions, churches and other stakeholders in the project area.

“It’s been rewarding to develop solutions that will protect these residents, community lifelines and businesses from flooding and allow them to recover more quickly if a significant storm event occurs,” Gay said.

©WSP
Rendering of the Pump Station 1D facility from the top of the discharge chamber looking west toward the pumps, wet well and control building.

Meet the Visioneers

As project manager and a leader in stormwater mitigation strategies, Melissa and her team have worked closely with stakeholders in the City of Virginia Beach to find the best way forward.

Over the last 10 years, team members have changed on both sides and funding shortages have arisen, but together we have overcome each challenge to ensure that this project is built, and that the Eastern Shore Drive communities will be protected now and in the future. I hope to see more coastal communities taking a future-ready approach to climate change and sea level rise like we are in Virginia Beach.

As senior technical manager, as well as a former resident of Virginia Beach who experienced this flooding firsthand, this project is especially rewarding for Tom, whose technical expertise in water resources engineering has been essential.

It’s just neat to work on something where you know the area, you’ve seen how it can flood and you know how this is going to help the people living there for years to come.

Other challenges that we have overcome