Willoughby Spit Coastal Scheme About to Begin

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Norfolk District, has just announced that the Willoughby Spit and Coastal Storm Damage Reduction Project is expected to start this month and be complete by May 2017.

The project area is located in the city of Norfolk, Virginia, and consists of 7.3 miles of shoreline along the southern portion of the Chesapeake Bay extending from the tip of Willoughby Spit near the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel to the federal navigation project at Little Creek Inlet.

The project, worth $34.5 million, is the largest single storm damage reduction project in the City of Norfolk and includes placing 1.2 million cubic yards of sand along the shoreline, widening the beach to 60 feet and creating a slope to 5 feet above mean low water.

This shoreline area has an expected life span of 50 years and is expected to receive 445,100 cubic yards of fill every nine years, dredged from the Thimble Shoal Auxiliary Channel, over the lifetime of the project.

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