Unwanted delays
HRBT expansion will be a welcome addition when finally completed
The Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel revolutionized regional transportation when it opened in 1957. It replaced two ferry routes that moved people between the Peninsula and south Hampton Roads communities and effectively knitted the two areas together.
Expansion of that key thoroughfare is expected to do the same, though it will take a little longer than anticipated to complete. The Virginia Department of Transportation announced last week that the project could open 18 months later than expected.
That’s disappointing, even for a region accustomed to HRBT-related delays. But area motorists may find comfort in knowing the project continues at a steady pace and that long-awaited relief from daily traffic woes draws a little closer every day.
If water is the defining feature of our region, then the spans which connect it rank a close second. The Hampton Roads, Monitor-Merrimac and Chesapeake Bay bridge-tunnels are engineering marvels, designed to link our communities to one another while minimizing disruption to maritime lanes used for commercial shipping and military operations.
At more than 17 miles long, the Chesapeake Bay span is the longest and the MMBT is the newest, opening in 1992. But the HRBT is the original and probably the most famous — or infamous, depending on one’s perspective.
Connecting the Willoughby Spit area in north Norfolk to the Phoebus area of Hampton, near historic Fort Monroe, the HRBT allowed for uninterrupted travel from the Atlantic coast to the Peninsula and the rest of Virginia. Its construction was a monumental accomplishment and, in tying the two areas together, radically changed how the region’s major cities interact with one another.
As the Hampton Roads population grew, however, the roadway struggled to accommodate more and more traffic. An additional tunnel that added two lanes helped alleviate congestion for a while, but because so many people live and work on opposite sides of the water, relief was fleeting.
By 2012, the number of vehicles traveling the HRBT routinely exceeded its expected capacity, which affected the whole region. Commuters battled daily traffic snarls. Travel times from one side to the other were unpredictable. And Hampton Roads earned the ignoble distinction of being a place where even folks in gridlocked Northern Virginia thought the traffic here was bad.
Expanding the HRBT was a long-discussed aspiration, but one that seemed cost prohibitive. Virginia’s transportation system was failing across the commonwealth for a lack of adequate funding, so spending billions on more lanes — however needed — was considered a pipe dream.
That was until Gov. Bob McDonnell and the General Assembly reached agreement on a landmark transportation bill that levied a tax dedicated to infrastructure improvements. It was the epitome of a compromise — yes, such a thing was possible between Republicans and Democrats — and enabled Virginia to begin evaluating, planning and building major roadway projects.
HRBT expansion was among the top priorities, and the wheels started turning quickly — from environmental impact statements and consideration of routes, to selection of a building partner and assurance of funding, to the start of construction in 2020.
The original timeline planned for the two new tubes to open in 2025, which was ambitious. But repeated delays have complicated things — not unexpected for a $3.9 billion project that depends on a 9.8 million pound tunnel boring machine that itself required six months to assemble. (The boring machine, Mary, was named for Mary Winston Jackson, a pioneering aerospace engineer from Hampton.)
VDOT announced last week that those complications will tack on 18 months, which would push the final completion date to Aug. 27, 2027. However, Hampton Roads Connector Partners — the design-build contractor — will receive an additional $90 million if it can achieve substantial completion by Sept. 25, 2026.
Certainly the entire region will be rooting for them, and for Mary, to hit that deadline, knowing that the additional lanes will address a notorious chokepoint in our region. Hampton Roads should be known for so much more than its traffic and that day, though now delayed, can’t come soon enough.