Hampton Roads Bridge and Tunnel

The Hampton Roads Bridge and Tunnel Expansion project aims to reduce traffic congestion at a bottleneck along Interstate 64. During peak traffic season, the roadway transports more than 100,000 vehicles per day, making this area one of the most congested in the state.  

The Hampton Roads Bridge and Tunnel Expansion is expanding and improving a 3.5 mile bridge-tunnel that runs between the cities of Hampton and Norfolk. The expansion entails adding two new 2-lane bored tunnels under the harbor, increasing the roadway from two lanes in each direction to four and constructing three new bridges to accommodate the new roadways.  

Thanks to Mary, the iconic tunnel boring machine, the team is conducting land and tunnel work simultaneously. This project is the state’s first with bored highway tunnels and the fourth in the United States. Each tunnel will be about 45 feet in diameter, creating the second-largest tunnel openings by a tunnel boring machine in North America.  

The project team used nitrogen skates to turn around the 2,500-ton cutter head and shield of Mary. This was the first application of the friction-reduction method in the United States, making Mary’s impressive pivot to bore a parallel tunnel only the second application of this nitrogen skate technology in the world.