Summer thunderstorms, king tides and flash flood warnings: Individually, each phrase can make anyone’s blood pressure soar in Old Town.
Now, there’s a new stressor: The price tag to fix the problem.
Last week, the Waterfront Commission Flood Mitigation Committee released an updated presentation regarding plans to reduce or prevent flooding along Old Town’s waterfront — and it included some eye-popping numbers.
The update does not include flood mitigation programs that are needed in Rosemont, Old Town North and other areas of the city that experience flooding with increasing frequency.
The presentation, which you can see here, gives multiple scenarios for preventing lower King Street and adjacent areas from flooding.
For the Old Town waterfront area, under the least-expensive cost-based option, flood mitigation for businesses and residents could range in price from $63 million to $136 million.
Under that scenario, city officials could “address the highest flooding priorities and goals within existing [Capital Improvement Plan] CIP funding” — specifically, storm sewers and backflow problems. The option could include pump stations and an underground stormwater detention chamber. That plan would not include measures to stop the Potomac River from overflowing its banks (called overtopping). It would not include any major park upgrades along the waterfront.
Add-ons to that plan could include landscape-based flood protection or flood walls, but those also add to the cost.
In addition, committee members presented options with streetscape and stormwater infrastructure improvements in Old Town, pump stations and protection from river overtopping — but that cost could range from $120 million to $255 million. Yet another option had price estimates ranging from $150 million to $322 million.
There’s some hope: Alexandria could be eligible for funding through the Virginia Community Flood Preparedness Fund or the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) Grant Program. Neither would cover the full cost of flood mitigation measures, but they could lower the cost burden on taxpayers.
So, what’s the next step? City officials will be applying for grant funding to help reduce costs, and field investigations will focus on finding more ways to save money on the project by using different methods. A subcommittee meeting of the Waterfront Commission Flood Mitigation Committee will be scheduled for November or December as the process of figuring out the best, driest path forward continues.
If all goes according to plan — whatever that plan is — residents and businesses could start seeing some relief as early as 2023 with project completion set for 2027.
