Arlington National Cemetery
WSSI was part of the Arlington National Cemetery Millennium Project team. As part of the project, they designed and permitted the stream restoration component that was an integral part and focal point of the aesthetic layout of the expansion.
Project Narrative:
The Arlington National Cemetery (ANC) Millennium Project was designed to provide additional internment space at this historic location, which was predicted to reach capacity by 2025. The final site design for the Millennium Project included a combination of columbarium, casket in-ground burials, and in-ground cremated remain internment locations to provide 27,000 additional burial spaces, maintaining ANC as an active cemetery for an additional 7 to 12 years.
Wetland Studies and Solutions, Inc. (WSSI) performed numerous tasks, including stream restoration design, as a subconsultant in support of the Millennium Project. WSSI developed a stream restoration design using Natural Channel Design principles for approximately 1,900 linear feet of badly degraded stream channel. The restored stream is now a prominent natural landscape amenity for the expansion project. Prior to design, WSSI surveyed 6-inch contour interval topography of the stream valley and survey-located, identified, and tagged all trees greater than 6-inches dbh for the entire project site. In addition, WSSI performed geomorphic stream assessments and a BANCS analysis to characterize the stream condition as well as erosion patterns and rates to determine the most appropriate restoration technique.
A One-Stop Shop For Stream Restoration
WSSI was also instrumental in obtaining approval for the stream restoration, as well as the overall Millennium Project, from regulatory agencies and reviewing agencies for the related impacts to Waters of the United States; WSSI also provided assistance with various studies, including a vegetation survey and a physical stream assessment, that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers included in the Environmental Assessment they prepared for the project. WSSI also supported compliance with local Chesapeake Bay protection ordinances by gaining approval of encroachments into the Resource Protection Area (RPA) through close coordination with the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation prior to the development, and by submittal of an RPA Exception Request and the associated Water Quality Impact Assessment to Arlington County.
Another aspect of the project involved retrofitting a parking lot outfall that flowed down a steep slope in an eroding channel located on National Park Service property. WSSI’s work included the sizing and design of an underground stormwater management facility to reduce flow rates (up to the 100-year storm event) from the parking lot to that of a forested condition using the Energy Balance method of stormwater management. WSSI also restored the eroding outfall channel using Step Pool Storm Conveyance design techniques.
WSSI was in charge of managing the stream construction, including regular inspections, approval of material submittals, responding to requests for information, coordinating/meeting with client and contractor, and performing and approving the as-built survey.
This ANC video shows the planned restored stream within the larger Millennium project at 1:23 and again at the end. (video credit: Arlington National Cemetery)
>> Learn more about the WSSI team’s work
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