NORFOLK, Va. — Ask just about anyone you meet in Norfolk’s Chesterfield Heights neighborhood, and they'll tell you about a time when the water got way too high.
"In this particular area right here, it did flood a whole lot,” one resident tells News 3. “They couldn't even get out of their houses."
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Hurricanes, Nor'easters, and even heavy downpours regularly inundate this neighborhood just east of Downtown Norfolk. But what's happened here over the past three years could help turn the tide.
“I think it is a huge game changer," Kyle Spencer, Norfolk’s Chief Resilience Officer, boasts.
Spencer may not be far off with that assessment. He gave News 3 anchor Blaine Stewart a tour of the work done since 2020, when the project broke ground. This work is part of a $112 million effort to try to keep the Elizabeth River from escaping its banks and flooding nearby homes. The money came from a federal grant.
“That pump station doesn't look like any other pump station in Norfolk,” Spencer points out. "It's intended to look more like the character of the neighborhood, the houses and homes around here."
TRENDING: Norfolk receives $24.6 million in additional flood preparedness funds
Some features of the Ohio Creek Flood Improvement Project are unique in the city. They include:
- Blocks of permeable brick pavers that help collect flood water and drain it away
- Several miles of new, larger underground drainage pipes
- A living shoreline along the Elizabeth River, which is one layer of a natural flood wall
- An upgraded, more flood-proof neighborhood entrance on Kimball Terrace
- A public park, connecting Chesterfield Heights to neighboring Grandy Village
- A restored tidal creek and flood berm
- A public pier along the Elizabeth River
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“There's a lot… of things here that you could say we're sort of experimenting with, or testing out, for the first time in the city,” Spencer says. “But, we definitely see this as the model moving forward."
It may just be the model for Norfolk and beyond. Spencer says planners from other Hampton Roads cities are watching what's happening here closely.
“This community, when you pack it all together, it's definitely become, probably the most resilient neighborhood in Norfolk," Spencer believes.
RELATED: Hampton offers waterfront property owners up to $30,000 to create living shorelines
News 3 photojournalist David Agudelo contributed to this story.
