The Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel Expansion project on the US east coast in Virginia will add much needed traffic capacities on the I-64 corridor between two thriving coastal port cities, Hampton and Norfolk. The existing connection was designed with a capacity of 77,000 vehicles per day. Today, the I-64 is used by approx. 100,000 cars and trucks, with tendency to rise. Two tunnels with two lanes each will be constructed parallel to the existing two tunnels. The total of eight lanes will double today’s capacity. The expansion project is the largest highway construction project in Virginia's history and currently one of the largest infrastructure projects in the U.S.
The Hampton Roads Connector Partners JV, comprising Dragados USA, Vinci Construction Grands Projets, Flatiron Constructors and Dodin Campenon Bernard, commissioned by the Virginia Department of Transportation ordered a Variable Density TBM with a shield diameter of 13,990 millimeters from Herrenknecht to drive 2 x 2,440 meters of large-diameter road tunnel. The workshop acceptance at the Herrenknecht headquarters in Schwanau, Germany, was celebrated on May 06, 2021. The machine named “Mary” is the second Herrenknecht TBM in the USA for a road tunnel project after the Port of Miami Tunnel.
The miners celebrated the next major milestone with Mary on April 17, 2024: the first of the two tunnels was completed from south to north, with a precise breakthrough to the shaft. Then, under the direction of the Herrenknecht colleagues, the construction site team performed the masterpiece of turning the shield with cutterhead and the gantries by 180 degrees in the shaft to drive the parallel second tunnel. In November 2024, Mary resumed her journey south for the second tunnel.
