June 2024 Edition

June marks the start of the busy summer travel season as motorists head to the mountains, beaches, and other favorite vacation spots to enjoy well-deserved time with family and friends. It’s also the time of year when construction crews depend on good weather to advance projects like the HRBT Expansion work. As the summer days grow longer, so does the list of activities our crews are performing throughout the corridor including operations near and adjacent to traffic.

Remember, when driving through our construction zones you’re driving through someone’s office. Each and every staff member at the HRBT Expansion Project is either a mom, dad, daughter, or son. Please be mindful of their workplaces and practice safe driving habits. Speed, distracted driving and not concentrating on highway signs can be detrimental to you, your families and our crews who are focused on their tasks at hand. Additionally, incidents and accidents throughout the corridor increase congestion on our already strained network and create compounding delays.



We can all do our part to help keep traffic moving and get our crews back home to their loved ones each night; slow down, put down your phone, and focus on the road!

Enjoy you summer!

Ryan Banas

Project Director

VDOT Hampton Roads District Engineer Chris Hall provides project overview to USACE visitors at the HRBT Expansion Welcome Center (left) and explains how tunnel liners are locked into position (right).

The Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Expansion Project was privileged to welcome the departing and arriving district engineer from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Norfolk District for a site tour on June 5, 2024.

Colonels Hallberg and Avichal, accompanied by District Executive Staff members, attended a project briefing at the HRBT Welcome Center and then toured the South and North Islands, including the newly bored tunnel and Mary The Tunnel Boring Machine. VDOT Hampton Roads District Engineer Chris Hall, HRBT Expansion Project Director Ryan Banas and HRCP executives conducted the tour.

The group descended into the receiving pit on the North Island to see Mary’s cutterhead close up and to hear details of how HRCP will spin the 4700-ton TBM to begin the next tunnel.

Following the tour, Banas was presented with a Commander’s Coin from Col. Hallberg in recognition of the project director’s day-to-day leadership and his efforts to maintain partnerships with regulatory agencies, particularly, the Norfolk District. 

Hall and Banas outside the Slurry Treatment Plant on the South Island.

One tunnel bored, one to go. Before TBM crews send Mary back under the harbor to bore a twin tunnel, six final concrete rings are set in place to finish the tunnel lining and allow the TBM to move past the headwall. Crews, for the first time in the U.S., will use nitrogen skids to turn her around for relaunch toward Norfolk. 

Here she comes! Mary’s shield emerges from the tunnel and onto the receiving cradle.

Crews position steel plates to construct a nitrogen table to slide the TBM into launch position.

While the TBM team preps for the second tunnel, interior tunnel crews are building a roadway, and preparing ventilation, fire suppression, and communication systems for future installation.

Crews make their way through the tunnel placing cement-based material as a foundation for a durable roadway.

HRCP conducts the first internal structure concrete pour to support the internal roadway system. 

Installing rebar for internal structures is a maze of steel.

Abutment work underway on a new Mallory Street Bridge in Hampton.

Quality Control inspects progress on Willoughby Bay Bridge.

Marine crew members preparing to set a bridge cap for the South Trestle.

HRCP prepares for future traffic shifts. Construction of the temporary westbound bridge continues.

The HRBT extended family after another successful Clean the Bay Day spent giving back to the community where we live and work.

The Chesapeake Bay is a cornerstone of life in Hampton Roads, and its preservation is critical to the region's vitality. As the HRBT Expansion Project team works to improve safe travel between our shores, Clean the Bay Day allows us to act against pollution impacting our vast shorelines and waterways. 

For the third consecutive year, VDOT and HRCP team members, their families, and neighbors, scouted local beaches for trash. Among the debris found was a fishing pole, piping, wood planks, bottle caps, plastic, cans, vinyl, and more. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation's 2024 cleanup netted more than 82,200 pounds of harmful litter and debris across over 200 sites.

WOW! It’s an often-repeated word no matter how many times we replay the video of Mary’s breakout. The trend continued at the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce Regional Board of Directors and Trustee meeting on June 12 in Norfolk.

Transportation was the theme of the quarterly meeting, packed with keynote transportation updates on Port of Virginia successes, highway improvement projects, DMV, and more, delivered by Secretary of Transportation Shep Miller (right). Secretary Miller applauded the work of VDOT’s Hampton Roads District and the accomplishments of the HRBT Expansion Project Team. Hall and Banas (left) followed with more impressive project progress.  

(Above) Bradley Weidenhammer, VDOT Operations Manager shares tunnel progress with the Kiwanis Club of Colonial Capital during their monthly meeting at Sandy’s Pancake House in Williamsburg. 

Diana Shue-Willis spends her workdays pouring over invoices and consultant staffing requirements as a Contract Administrator for the HRBT Expansion Project. Outside work, she can be found providing guidance and oversight for one of her favorite service organizations, Special Olympics Virginia (SOV).

Earlier this month, Diana volunteered at SOV’s annual summer games in Richmond which provide children and adults with disabilities the opportunity to compete in individual and team activities and sports, while also forming new friendships.

For eight years, she has devoted her time as a coach and proud parent, and nothing pleases her more than to see the “joy on the athletes faces when they receive their medals,” said Diana. For parents of athletes, the games are also an opportunity to share knowledge and information about other activities available to special needs individuals.

“Many physically limited and disabled adults whose disability prevents them from full-time employment or living on their own have limited activities,” explained Diana. But the annual June celebration of inclusion, diversity, and the power of sport, she points out, brings these special athletes together and transforms lives.

(Diana served as Assistant to the Track and Field Coach for the 2024 Summer Games).

This Father’s Day, we’re celebrating family ties by highlighting a father-son duo connected by the intricate world of tunnel engineering and the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel.

Axel Nitschke started his journey toward an international career in tunneling in 1995. Over the next 26 years, he would become an expert in his field, earning a PhD in civil engineering with a thesis on the loadbearing capacity of steel fiber-reinforced concrete. He worked on projects throughout Europe and the Americas notably Tyson’s Corner Silver Line Tunnel, Caldecott Tunnel in California, and the Anacostia River Tunnel in Washington, DC. However, tunnels weren’t all Axel would build on his path to the HRBT Expansion, where he’d serve as lead tunnel engineer from 2019 – 2021. He was also building a legacy. 

Lion & Axel at Metro Bochum, Lot 306 in Germany on Take Your Kids to Work Day (2002)

Today, the pre-construction concepts and verifications Axel worked on in the design stages of the expansion, are coming to life with the help of none other than his son, Lion. Since age six, Lion was his father’s shadow, accompanying him to tunnel projects across Germany. “Being underground was like seeing another world,” Lion recalls. These experiences gave him an unmatched perspective that ignited his passion for engineering.

Guided by his late father’s example, Lion pursued civil engineering. Now a tunnel engineer on the HRBT Expansion Project since 2022, Lion reflects on how his father’s influence shaped his career and character. Along with a niche for tunneling, by working his way up from the field to the executive level, Axel instilled into his son traits of humility, persistence, and diligence. Lion carries these qualities and the fond memories of life lessons on critical thinking and ingenuity through his personal and professional life. 

As Lion hopes to one day start a family, he looks forward to continuing the Nitschke tunneling tradition and passing on the same life skills that have led him to success. 

Honoring all the amazing dads out there!

The Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Expansion Project is constructing one segment, albeit a large one, of the Hampton Roads Express Lanes (HREL) network which, when completed, is designed to provide motorists with even more reliable transportation options, reduce travel times, and enhance travel time predictability.

Currently, 24/7 high-occupancy tolling operations are underway on 21 miles of Express Lanes on I-64, following the recent opening of the 14-mile HREL Chesapeake Segment from the Bowers Hill interchange to I-264 interchange in Norfolk, alongside the adjacent, previously existing Norfolk Reversible Express Lanes between I-264 and I-564, which transitioned to full-time tolling operations with the Chesapeake Segment. Construction on additional segments of the Express Lanes is

underway on each side of the HRBT, in Hampton, Newport News and Norfolk, as part of what will ultimately become the continuous 45-mile HREL network, stretching from Denbigh Boulevard in Newport News to the Bowers Hill interchange area in Chesapeake.

Motorists will now have more choices: solo drivers can choose to pay a variable toll to use the Express Lanes with a required E-ZPass transponder, while vehicles with at least two occupants can use them toll-free with an E-ZPass Flex transponder switched to "HOV ON." The toll only applies to solo drivers who opt to use the Express Lanes, offering a faster and more reliable travel option and helping reduce congestion overall along the corridor.

Dynamic tolling is a key feature of the Express Lanes, adjusting toll prices for solo drivers every few minutes based on real-time traffic conditions. When traffic volume increases in the Express Lanes, toll prices rise to manage the number of vehicles, ensuring smooth traffic flow and reliable travel times. Conversely, when traffic volume decreases, toll prices automatically drop or remain at the minimum toll price, encouraging more drivers to use the Express Lanes while opening up additional capacity in the general-purpose lanes.

These transportation improvements would not be possible without the Hampton Roads Transportation Accountability Commission (HRTAC) and its oversight and commitment to funding large-scale regional transportation projects. The commission is comprised of mayors from local governments, state legislators from the region, and area Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) members.

For more information on the Hampton Roads Express Lanes network, operations, and to view an interactive map, visit https://64expresslanes.org/drive/.

Transportation in Hampton Roads is evolving with the expansion of bridges, pedestrian crossings, mass transit, and bike trails. The changes can be an adjustment for all roadway users. 

In observation of World Bicycle Day, celebrated annually on June 3rd, the Expansion Team reminds motorists to watch out for bicyclists, particularly in construction zones and areas with new traffic patterns. Although bicycles are not permitted on the HRBT, project-related landside work on city streets can impact travel for vehicles and bicycles.

Share the road responsibly, slow down in work zones, and please stay alert to ensure everyone's safety!