Transportation 2025: BRICH, STEPHEN

With about 30 years in transportation, Brich oversees VDOT’s more than 59,000 miles of road, 21,000 bridges and other structures, six tunnels and three ferry systems. Appointed in 2018, he manages more than 8,000 VDOT employees and an $8.9 billion annual budget for the nation’s third largest transportation agency.

The most notable VDOT project underway is the $3.9 billion Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Expansion, which is expected to be completed in February 2027 — a year past its original schedule.

Also underway is the $756 million I-64 Gap Widening Project, which will widen 29 miles of roadway in New Kent and James City counties from two lanes to three lanes in each direction. The overall project, divided into three independent sections of I-64, has an expected completion date of summer 2029.

A Hampton Roads native and graduate of Old Dominion University and the University of Virginia, Brich serves on the Virginia Commonwealth Transportation Board. In May, the board approved almost $18.2 million in Smart Scale funding for a diverging diamond interchange and other improvements at Exit 211 on I-64, where Buc-ee’s is planning to open a second travel center in Virginia.

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