By BOB STUART bstuart@newsvirginian.com (540) 932-3562

Sep 1, 2018

WAYNESBORO — The Virginia Museum of Natural History Waynesboro campus would be built in a downtown area outside the city’s 100-year flood plain, and would not be susceptible to flooding, according to city and museum officials.

Deputy Waynesboro City Manager Jim Shaw said the museum’s proposed location in the northwest corner of a municipal parking lot near the city’s fire department is not in the flood plain.

Historically, flooding on the South River has led to flooding issues along Main Street. Most recently in 2003, a major flood caused by Hurricane Isabel, forced the river to crest at nearly 14 feet.

A number of Main Street businesses suffered damage, and some accumulated two to three feet of water. Emergency shelters were opened, and a state of emergency was declared in the city.

Hurricane Isabel’s impact led to 20 inches of rain in Sherando, and, statewide, affected 99 Virginia localities and did nearly $2 billion in damage.

The Virginia Museum of Natural History’s board of trustees voted two weeks ago to locate a campus of the museum on the lot adjacent to Arch Avenue and Main Street. Many obstacles remain to the 25,000-square-foot museum’s construction, including the necessary $7.5 million in construction funding from the Virginia General Assembly.

A committee is reviewing nine proposals from architecture and design firms for the museum project and plans to select a firm by late September.

While no design of the museum has been proposed, the executive director of the Martinsville-based Natural History Museum said there would be no basement with the project.

“The lot is not level,” said Joe Keiper, executive director. There is also no decision yet about how many levels the museum would have.

Keiper said museum officials are confident that the museum’s eventual location will not have any flooding issues.

Two new bridges crossing the South River in downtown Waynesboro have been built within the last five years. According to VDOT, the city’s recent bridge construction has had no impact on flooding.

A VDOT hydrology engineer told The News Virginian that the “new Main Street and Broad Street bridges neither increase nor decrease the chances of flooding in the city. Our analysis of the new bridges only confirm that there will be no impact to the flood elevation.”

Shaw said of greater concern in the event of flooding is a CSX Railroad-owned bridge just down river from the other two bridges. He said the bridge, located north of Broad Street, is “a pinch point for flood water.”