VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — For the last few months, construction at the South Plaza Trail has been causing some headaches for commuters — but don’t worry, this closure will soon a thing of the past.
“We are installing a lot of new pipe within the South Plaza Corridor to add additional capacity to the storm system to alleviate flooding on Rosemont Road. South Plaza Trail and Presidential Boulevard,” said Virginia Beach’s Stormwater Engineering Center Administrator, Mike Tippin.
He added that if these new pipes aren’t installed, flooding will continue to plague the area. Tippin recalls that during Hurricane Matthew, flooding became so bad that it was not just impacting the roads, but getting into homes as well. With bigger pipes, that shouldn’t be an issue.
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“We had approximately 2,000 homes in this area flood,” he said.
There were a few slowdowns during the process of installing these pipes. This was mainly because, when drilling to install the pipes, they had to drill past and shut off other utilities in the area, such as gas lines.
“Without question every time we start a construction project we run into conflicts with those, so that slows down construction a little bit,” Tippin told News 3.
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Tippin says the last of those pipes will be in the ground by the end of September, resulting in the road opening back up.
“We only have this last 300 feet to go from the entrance of this Dollar General to the intersection with south Rosemont,” he said.
This isn’t the only flood prevention project going on in Virginia Beach.
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Earlier in the year, News 3 learned that the first phase of the $100 million Bow Creek Stormwater Park project will finish up in 2027. Plus, a large pump station is set to be built in the Windsor Woods neighborhood of the city, with construction starting on that within the next year or so.
