The James River winds its way through 348 miles of Virginia from the Blueridge Mountains all the way to the City of Norfolk, VA and the Chesapeake Bay. The last creek that the James River encounters before it’s confluence with the Bay is the Lafayette River. It is on the banks of the Lafayette where EQR was fortunate enough to work with the City of Norfolk on a pair of shorelines. The Hermitage Museum—a local landmark where residents can view a fine art collection and take professional programs and classes. It also serves as a wedding venue and a large open tidal water inlet for boating access.
Prior to the project, the shoreline along the Lafayette, south of the museum, was eroding and had two failing seawalls. The existing banks consisted of reused concrete debris placed to prevent further erosion toward the road and associated infrastructure. The remaining length of shoreline was eroding with bank heights of 2-4 feet. As a remedy for these degraded conditions, the project restored 2,600 linear feet of new living shoreline broken into two sections.
The logistics of tidal work were challenging, but The City of Norfolk’s team was a pleasure to work with and EQR and the City found a rhythm in which the work could be done effectively and efficiently.
Some challenges of working in the tidal zone were: sand movement by tidal influences, the rock sills so low that crews could only work during times of low tide, and unstable ground conditions limited the use of heavy equipment. Despite that complexity, EQR was able to complete the project ahead of schedule and under budget.
Kudos to the design team at Brown and Caldwell who put forth a successful design, and were great to work with-- especially given the challenging storms and tides that affected the project during construction. We look forward to working with both Brown and Caldwell and the City of Norfolk again soon.
We are incredible proud of Kristen Burton and the entire team in our Richmond office, they sincerely care about quality work and are greatly appreciated.
Shore looks good!
