Alexandria is a major beneficiary of Virginia’s latest round of flood prevention grants coming from the state.
Gov. Ralph Northam announced Tuesday that the state is doling out more than $24 million in grant money to 22 local governments around the commonwealth.
Alexandria is receiving the third-most grant money of any jurisdiction in the state, with its $3.75 million largely going toward improvements to the city’s historic waterfront and the remaining $500,000 being used for flood mitigation work along Edison and Dale streets.
The money comes from the Virginia Community Flood Preparedness Fund, which receives its funding from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, an 11-state coalition along the mid-Atlantic and Northeast that is financed by the sale of carbon emission allowances.
“With this second round of awards, Virginia continues its efforts to combat flooding — the most common and costly natural hazard we face,” Northam said. “The Community Flood Preparedness Fund will provide an estimated $75 million a year to improve the resilience of our Commonwealth, including targeted funding for Virginia’s most vulnerable and underserved communities.”
Alexandria is all too familiar with the effects of flooding.
In August, overnight rains left the neighborhoods around the Braddock Road Metro Station battling basement floods thanks to overwhelmed storm drains.
And in October, the city’s Old Town area was in knee-deep water, including its main thoroughfare of King Street, thanks to storms with heavy rain that prompted severe coastal flooding of the tidal Potomac.
The city said that October’s storm was the third-highest tidal flooding event on record.
The Northern Virginia Regional Commission is also getting an $11,000 grant to create a dashboard for real-time flooding risk data.
Cities in the Hampton Roads area received the lion’s share of funding from the state.
Hampton will be getting more than one-third of the grant money, totaling $9.16 million spread over four separate projects. And Newport News will receive nearly $5 million to be put toward developing a master plan on stormwater and floodplain management.
Below is the full list of grant recipients and their respective uses announced by the state:
- Waterfront Improvement Project Design: City of Alexandria | $3,241,200
- Alexandria Flood Mitigation – Edison Street and Dale Street Capacity Project Phase I: City of Alexandria | $516,500
- Staff Training and Certification (CFM): Town of Ashland | $2,579
- Resilience Plan: Town of Ashland | $60,051
- Resilience Planning and Staff Training: City of Charlottesville | $94,276
- Resilience Plan: Town of Christiansburg | $44,520.30
- Resilience Plan Development and Training: Town of Colonial Beach | $103,500
- Big Bethel Blueway; Albany Drive at Big Bethel Road: City of Hampton | $3,008,500
- Sunset Creek Urban Channel Naturalization Project: City of Hampton | $2,022,143
- Billy Woods Canal: City of Hampton | $291,850
- Lake Hampton and North Armistead Avenue: City of Hampton | $3,841,544
- Pilot Project Development; Dashboard; Education and Outreach: Henrico County | $361,500
- Resilience Plan Development and Training: Isle of Wight County | $68,026
- Capacity Building and Planning: Lenowisco PDC | $150,000
- MPPDC Capacity Building: Middle Peninsula PDC | $35,250
- Dredging Project: Middlesex County | $336,000
- Master Plan Development, Stormwater, Floodplain, Resilience and Climate Change Management: City of Newport News | $4,926,063
- Watershed Master Plan Study and Purchase of Flood Sensors: City of Norfolk | $315,000
- Hazard Mitigation Plan Update: Northern Neck PDC | $45,000
- Data collection of regional significance, creation of tools and applications, dashboard for real-time flooding risk data: Northern Virginia Regional Commission | $11,250
- Resilience Plan Development and Staff: City of Petersburg | $385,016
- Comprehensive Citywide Drainage Study and FP Ordinance Update: City of Petersburg | $2,238,542
- Resilience Plan Development – Windsor Farms: City of Richmond | $19,394
- Resilience Plan Development: City of Roanoke | $135,000
- Town of Scottsville Study: Town of Scottsville | $123,346
- Capacity Building for Flood Resilience in Southern Virginia: Southside Planning District Commission | $135,000
- Hoskins Creek and Rappahannock River: Town of Tappahannock | $69,920
- Stormwater Project – South Birdneck Road between Hughes Avenue and Sea Street: City of Virginia Beach | $1,925,000
- West Point Study: Town of West Point | $22,800
