The other tunnel project

Despite complications including a run-in with an abandoned anchor, workers are now back at it, constructing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel’s second tunnel across the Thimble Shoal Channel.

As of July, the bridge-tunnel’s expansion from one tunnel to two is set to be finished in 2027 — five years later than expected and 10 years after work started — and will cost about $817 million, up $60 million from original estimates.

The culprit? An antique anchor in the tunnel boring machine’s path. Nicknamed Chessie, the boring machine started excavating in the Thimble Shoal Channel in February 2023, and about 750 feet down in the tunnel, Chessie struck an anchor dropped more than 70 years ago, according to Thomas Anderson, deputy executive director of finance and operations for the CBBT project.

The anchor’s manufacturer was identified as W.L. Byers Co., a British anchor maker in the 19th and 20th centuries, Anderson says. The obstacle in Chessie’s way, though broken into pieces, was approximately 10 feet tall and five feet wide in totality. Larger pieces of the anchor were recovered.

“There’s a couple pieces that they haven’t accounted for, but they were all fairly small,” Anderson explains. “We figured they either got ingested by the machine and we just didn’t see them come out on the conveyor belt, or they got pushed to the side [by the machine]. … They were able to recover most of it, though.”

Back in action

The $3.9 billion Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel expansion underway — in which Mary, its tunnel boring machine, completed work on one of two new tunnels in April — is the larger and more high-profile project, but the CBBT expansion is also significant for both the Virginia Department of Transportation and Hampton Roads commuters looking forward to less gridlock.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel’s expansion, when complete, will have a parallel two-lane tunnel alongside the existing immersed tube tunnel that connects two islands along the Thimble Shoal Channel, with southbound traffic in the new tunnel and northbound in the older tunnel.

Having two tunnels makes life easier for commuters, whose drives are often impacted by accidents or road maintenance, Anderson notes.

Anderson says that Chessie’s anchor strike caused significant damage to the boring machine, and the majority of the tools on the machine’s cutterhead had to be replaced by the crew before it could start work again, as well as removing the anchor from the tunnel’s path, a $60 million cost that is expected to be covered at least in part by insurance.

“The final amount … is yet to be determined because that anchor strike is an insured event, so it’s not up to us necessarily,” Anderson explains. “It’s up to the contractor to settle with the insurance companies. The final amount of that settlement hasn’t been negotiated yet. But we expect to receive the majority of that cost back in insurance proceeds.”

The anchor issue came up after other complications and delays — including issues related to granite boulders used to build the CBBT six decades ago — had already pushed the completion date from 2022 to 2024. Now the expected completion date is late summer 2027, according to Anderson.

As of April, Chessie has resumed its intended journey, 14 months after the anchor strike, and the machine had completed about half of the digging required for the 43-foot-wide, 6,350-foot-long tunnel as of July.

Also, workers on the two channel islands — known as No. 1 and No. 2 islands — have finished constructing the launching and receiving pits where Chessie now enters and exits the new tunnel, and where traffic will one day flow. Other projects underway or recently finished include roadway slabs and engineered berms on both islands. Later in the process, workers will construct the roadway, the tunnel’s electrical and mechanical systems, and support buildings, according to the CBBT’s website.

Toll revenue, the CBBT’s general fund, and state and federal funds — including a loan of up to $338.6 million from the federal government in November 2021 — are funding the project. One day, the state hopes to expand the second tunnel further, connecting two islands on the Chesapeake Channel.

“We don’t expect to be able to afford to build the second [tunnel] at Chesapeake Channel until sometime in the mid-2030s,” Anderson says.