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2. United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)
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4. Norfolk District
5. Environmental Documents

Title:	Detailed Project Report and Environmental Assessment : Rudee Inlet, Virginia Beach, Virginia, Navigation Study
Authors:	United States. Army. Corps of Engineers. Norfolk District
Keywords:	Inland navigation Channels (Hydraulic engineering) Sedimentation and deposition Dredging Dredging spoil Dredged material Environmental management Environmental protection Virginia Beach (Va.)
Publisher:	United States. Army. Corps of Engineers. Norfolk District
Abstract:	Rudee Inlet is located on the Atlantic Ocean at Virginia Beach in an area where boating is a major activity. It provides a gateway to a variety of oceanic pursuits varying from pleasure cruising to commercial deep sea fishing. The city has expended considerable sums on the construction works and maintenance of the inlet, but with limited success. Almost continuous dredging is performed in an attempt to keep the entrance channel at a safe navigable depth. However, the large volume of northward moving littoral drift has created severe shoaling problems at the inlet. Over a period of time, the sand trap has filled and the overflow is simultaneously migrating into the western half of the entrance channel, causing extensive shoaling, and gradually accumulating south of the weir. This fillet extends about 1,000 feet south of the weir and contains about 35,000 cubic yards of material. This situation, in turn, has resulted in the littoral drift being transported around the new south jetty. A bar has formed across the mouth of the inlet and is fed by this drift material. Boat operators find that navigating the inlet, especially over this bar, is very dangerous. The selected plan of improvement recommended on the basis of this study would include the construction and maintenance of a channel 3,675 feet long. The entrance channel would be -10 feet mean low water (m.l.w.) and 110 feet wide from the Atlantic Ocean into Rudee Inlet up to the existing old south jetty adjacent to the pump house, thence 72 feet wide through the rest of the inlet. The channel west of the inlet would be -7 feet m.l.w. and 72 feet wide from the entrance channel to the General Booth Boulevard Bridge, including a safety area just west of the entrance channel; 53 feet wide under the bridge; and 175 feet wide thereafter to the upper limit of the project in Lake Rudee. The wood and steel sheet piling on the north bank of the entrance channel near the restaurant would be replaced initially and again about every 25 years with new steel sheet piling. The wooden weir would be replaced in about 15 years and again about every 25 years. The stone jetties would remain intact. The fillet of sand south of the weir would not be excavated initially but may have to be excavated soon after construction. Dredging would involve the removal of 206,000 cubic yards of material. The material in the entrance channel (38,000 cubic yards), sand trap (103,000 cubic yards), and fillet (35,000 cubic yards) is sand and would be used for beach nourishment on the downdrift beach north of the inlet. The remaining 30,000 cubic yards of fine-grained material from the inner channel and Lake Rudee would be placed in anoxic -38-foot (m.l.w.) depressions in Lakes Rudee and Wesley. Maintenance requirements would include the dredging of 220,000 cubic yards annually in the entrance channel and sand trap. This dredging would be done semi-annually and the material would be bypassed to the beaches north of the inlet. West of the inlet, only 3,000 cubic yards of dredging per year would be required but this would be accomplished about once every 10 years. The first cost for the selected plan would be $1,418,000. Based on traditional cost-sharing procedures, the Federal share of this cost exclusive of lands, easements, and rights-of-way is presently estimated at $1,175,000 and the non-Federal share at $203,000. The remaining $40,000 is the estimated cost to local interests for providing lands, easements, and rights-of-way to the Federal Government as an item of local cooperation. The average annual cost would be $1,485,000. All of ·the annual maintenance of $1,368,000 would be a Federal responsibility. The plan would accrue annual benefits of $2,709,000 and result in a benefit-cost ratio of 1.8 to 1.
Description:	Detailed Project Report and Environmental Assessment
Rights:	Approved for Public Release; Distribution is Unlimited
URI:	https://hdl.handle.net/11681/48439
Appears in Collections:	Environmental Documents