Norfolk, Virginia is armoring the shoreline at Ocean View Beach Park with stone revetments and timber barriers, the latest piece of a billion-dollar effort to protect a city facing the nation's most severe flooding threat outside Louisiana.

The work targets the 200 block of the park, a popular recreation spot on the Chesapeake Bay where the city will install sloped stone barriers designed to absorb wave energy and protect an aging bulkhead. Crews will also clear old rip rap debris left from earlier, makeshift flood protection efforts.

Norfolk has seen 18 inches of sea level rise since 1930, combining global ocean rise with sinking land from groundwater withdrawal. Projections show another 1.5 to 2 feet by 2050. Ocean View, a peninsula jutting into the bay, gets maximum exposure to storm surge and wave action, making incremental shoreline hardening essential even as questions grow about whether these defenses can keep pace with accelerating seas.

The city is funding the project locally rather than waiting for federal grants, part of a pattern that's strained municipal budgets. Norfolk has raised stormwater utility fees 150 percent since 2015 to pay for resilience work, angering some residents in a city where 18 percent live below the poverty line.

Ocean View has transformed since 2010 from a struggling neighborhood into a testing ground for coastal adaptation. The city invested $43 million in beach nourishment there in 2023 and has pursued ongoing park improvements as home values climb and new businesses open.

Contractor selection begins this month, with a question-and-answer session scheduled for March 11.