The Port of Hampton Roads is comprised of commercial, naval and heavy industrial maritime facilities at the mouth of the James River and lower Chesapeake Bay. Maintaining waterborne commerce and accommodating deep-draft vessels is economically critical, and periodic dredging of channels and anchorages is necessary.

The Craney Island Dredged Material Management Area (CIDMMA), a federally owned 2,500-acre confined dredged-material disposal site, provides a long-term area for material dredged from the Port of Hampton Roads. Originally designed to hold about 100 million cubic yards of material, the site was managed intensively by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to extend its life to the present day.

A recent feasibility study supported Congressional authorization to expand the site to extend the facility's useful life; provide acreage for developing a new containerized cargo port; and serve as a logistical and tactical area for national defense.

EIS natural resource analyses

ARCADIS is preparing a detailed environmental impact evaluation of constructing and operating a new containerized cargo port. This document is being combined with the USACE evaluation of the expansion in an environmental impact statement (EIS) on the overall project.

For the EIS, ARCADIS was responsible for development of the Project Need statement; discussion of port alternatives; analysis of physical and biological resources; analysis of impacts to infrastructure, socioeconomics and cultural resources; and development of mitigation measures.

We are also participating in EIS status review meetings and attending stakeholder and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) meetings.