The City of Norfolk, Virginia, has selected a joint venture to provide program and project management services in support of its $2.6 billion Coastal Storm Risk Management Program, according to an AECOM press release. The Norfolk Resilience Partners JV is composed of Dallas-based AECOM; Long Beach, California-headquartered Moffatt & Nichol; and Mobile, Alabama-based Volkert.
The joint Army Corps of Engineers and city program aims to increase Norfolk’s infrastructure resilience to climate change, protect it from coastal flooding and mitigate damage from significant storms. It’s one of the biggest infrastructure efforts in city history, according to NPR, and just one of many similar projects the USACE is planning along the U.S. coast, from New York to Texas.
Norfolk is second only to New Orleans for risk from coastal storms, according to the city. For five years in a row, Norfolk has been the city most affected by sea-level rise on the East Coast, according to 2023 research from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at William & Mary, with changes driven by warming oceans and sinking land.
New resilience features will include a system of nearly eight miles of flood walls with levees, surge barriers, 11 tide gates and 10 pump stations. The project will also incorporate nature-based solutions such as oyster reefs, living shorelines and wetlands mitigation.
Under the single-award contract, Norfolk Resilience Partners will deliver program and project management, engineering and design, real estate services, public engagement, utility coordination, environmental and cultural resources evaluations and compliance, grant management and more. AECOM will serve as managing partner of the JV.
The project will be divided into five implementation phases, according to the release: four phases associated with four watershed areas and a fifth phase to provide non-structural solutions across the city, such as home elevations, basement fills and flood proofing.
Congress recently earmarked $400 million for the project in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, according to NPR, and the federal government has otherwise committed to covering 65% of the total cost. That still leaves Norfolk on the hook for $931 million, which it hopes to split with the state.