Bow Creek Stormwater Park-Built to Flood
Like many coastal communities, Virginia Beach is experiencing more frequent flooding due to sea level rise, increased storm intensity, and aging infrastructure. These issues coupled with tidal impacts and low elevations has resulted in severe flooding in portions of the City. Hurricane Matthew (2016) resulted in the worst structural flooding ever experienced. As a result, the City embarked upon an extensive, multi-year flood protection program with the goal to increase resiliency to future storms, mitigate structural flooding, and improve roadway accessibility.
One of the proposed solutions of the overall watershed plan is to utilize a City-owned golf course to serve as a workhorse to provide stormwater/flood storage. Design for the park was initialized in 2019, working to balance storage with park uses. To achieve this, the golf course will be excavated to create an approximate 25-acre ponding area. The upland park area of the park, including the land between the permanent water surface elevation and the 100-year storm event will double as flood storage during extreme events, ultimately providing nearly 300-acre feet of stormwater storage.
Due to construction sequencing constraints, the park was divided into two phases. Design for Phase I was completed in Spring of 2023. Construction was started in the fall of 2023 and is scheduled to be complete in 2026. During construction of Phase I, Phase II will undergo design, and construction for Phase II is scheduled to be started in the Spring of 2026, with a completion date (of the overall park) in 2029.
Phase I will provide a 13-acre water body with a kayak dock and include recreational amenities such as fully accessible shared use paths, nature trails, wildlife viewing blinds, an Event Center with plaza, almost ½-acre event lawn, an overlook platform, restrooms, parking, and bridges connecting the trail networks. The entire facility is intended to be used for public education with interpretive signage to highlight improvements and function for the site, including the treatment of water quality, use of native plant material, and restoration of ecological functions, as well as area history.
This is an exciting and collaborative project between the City of Virginia Beach Public Works and Parks and Recreation to create a multi-faceted park to provide flood mitigation storage, and double as a park for the entire community to enjoy!
Presentation will cover design process, construction, and next steps.
Author Bio
Jeff VanFossen is a Project Manager in the Public Works - Stormwater Engineering Center with the City of Virginia Beach and is part of the project management team for the Bow Creek Stormwater Park. He grew up in Virginia Beach, served in the military and received an engineering degree from Old Dominion University.
Jeff previously worked in the engineering department for Augusta County where his responsibilities included project management, VSMP program administration, and briefly served as the interim County Engineer. He has worked in the stormwater and erosion & sediment control fields since 2015.
Fred Grogan is a Technical Manager with the Civil and Environmental Engineering group of Michael Baker International. His technical aptitude, stormwater design expertise, and passion for protecting water resources has led to habitat protection and ecological uplift on a vast array of project types ranging in scale from conceptual design, to detailed design of complex stormwater networks
