NORFOLK, Va. — As Hampton Roads dealt with more wet weather over the weekend, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-Virginia) is proposing using nearly $75 million in the state budget to help fund the city's Coastal Risk Management Project.
Youngkin made the announcement on Friday through a press release. Lawmakers will return to Richmond in January to take up the state budget.
The ten year $2.6 billion project requires federal, state and local dollars.
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In June, the city and the Army Corps of Engineers signed an agreement on the project with the federal government initially chipping in $400 million.
"We recognize the challenges of living alongside these waters, yet we are proactively stepping up to face those challenges head on," Norfolk Mayor Kenny Alexander said in a statement. "I am grateful to Governor Youngkin and his administration for its dedication to this cause. We look forward to working with the General Assembly in 2024 to strengthen our Commonwealth’s resiliency moving forward."
The project is being done in five phases and will include a system of flood walls, a levee, a surge barrier, and pump stations.
Right now, design work is continuing on the project with construction slated to begin over the next few years and lasting until 2032.
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"We're doing this pre-disaster, so a lot of times these projects happen after the hurricane brings catastrophic flooding and then all of the federal money gets sent down to rebuild it back," said Kyle Spencer, the city's chief resiliency officer, in June.
News 3 spoke with neighbors in Ghent on Monday, who said Sunday's storm didn't really cause problems, but they know flooding can be an issue.
"You know know where it's going to flood. If you live around here, you know which intersections are going to flood and you avoid them," said Rob Martinez, a neighbor. "You drive around them."
