Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel in Virginia near the mouth of the Bay. For the bridge across the bay in Maryland, see Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

**Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel**
Coming down from the high-level portion near the north end.
Official name	Lucius J. Kellam Jr. Bridge-Tunnel
Carries	4 lanes (4 on bridges, 2 in tunnels) of US 13
Crosses	Chesapeake Bay
Locale	Virginia Beach, Virginia to Cape Charles, Virginia
Maintained by	Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel Commission
Design	Composite: Low-level Trestle, Single-tube Tunnels, Man made islands, Truss bridges, High-level Trestle
Total length	23 miles (37 km)^[1]
Clearance below	75 feet (North Channel) 40 feet (Fisherman Inlet)
Opening date	April 15, 1964 (northbound) April 19, 1999 (southbound)
Toll	Cars $12 (each direction, round trip discount available)
Maps and aerial photos Street map from Google Maps or Yahoo! Maps Topographic map from TopoZone Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA Satellite image from Google Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel (CBBT) is a 23 mile (37 km) long facility that connects the Delmarva Peninsula with southeastern Virginia in the United States. It crosses the mouth of Chesapeake Bay and connects the independent cities of Virginia Beach & Norfolk, Virginia to Cape Charles in Northampton County along with the rest of the eastern shore of Virginia.

The bridge-tunnel uses a combination of bridges and tunnels over and under two widely separated shipping channels, using four man-made islands built in the bay as portals. The CBBT complex carries U.S. Route 13, the main north-south highway on Virginia's Eastern Shore, and, as part of the East Coast's longstanding Ocean Highway, provides the only direct link between Virginia's Eastern Shore and South Hampton Roads regions, as well as an alternate route to link the Northeast and points in between with Norfolk and the Carolinas.

Financed by toll revenue bonds, it was opened on April 15, 1964.^[1] The bridge-tunnel was officially named the Lucius J. Kellam Jr. Bridge-Tunnel in August 1987 after one of the civic leaders who had long worked for its development and operation. However, it continues to be best known as the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.

In 1995, at a cost of almost US$200 million, work began to increase the capacity of the above-water portion on trestles and bridges to four lanes, and was completed in 1999. An even more costly proposition, the two-lane tunnels were not upgraded at that time.

1 Ferry system
2 Studying and building a fixed crossing
3 Additional trestles and lanes added
4 CBBT and Lucius J. Kellam Jr
5 One of the Seven Engineering Wonders of the Modern World
6 Facts and figures
7 See also
8 Notes and references
9 External links

[edit] Ferry system

From the early 1930s to 1954, Virginia Ferry Corporation, a privately-owned public service company managed scheduled vehicular (car, bus, truck) and passenger ferry service between the Virginia Eastern Shore and the Hampton Roads area which was known as the Little Creek Ferry.

Despite operating an expanding fleet of large and modern ships eventually capable of as many as 90 one-way trips each day, the service offered by the ferry system was considered inadequate by many users. The trips took a long time, and there were often delays due to heavy traffic and inclement weather.

In 1954, the Virginia General Assembly (state legislature) created a political subdivision, the Chesapeake Bay Ferry District and its governing body, the Chesapeake Bay Ferry Commission. The Commission was authorized to acquire the private ferry corporation through bond financing, to improve the existing ferry service.

[edit] Studying and building a fixed crossing

In 1956, the General Assembly authorized the Ferry Commission to conduct feasibility studies for the construction of a fixed crossing. The conclusion of the study indicated that a vehicular crossing was feasible and recommended a series of bridges and tunnels. The Bridge-Tunnel was designed by the engineering firm Sverdrup & Parcel of St. Louis, Missouri, who also served as the construction manager for the project.

In the summer of 1960, the Chesapeake Bay Ferry Commission sold $200 million in toll revenue bonds to private investors, and the proceeds were used to finance the construction of the Bridge-Tunnel. Funds collected by future tolls were pledged to pay the principal and interest on the bonds. No local, state or federal tax funds were used in the construction of the project.

Construction contracts were awarded to a consortium of Tidewater Construction Corporation and Merritt-Chapman & Scott Corporation. The steel superstructure for the high-level bridges near the north end of the crossing were fabricated by the American Bridge Division of United States Steel Corporation. Construction of the Bridge-Tunnel began in October 1960 after six months were spent assembling the needed equipment from throughout the world.

The construction was accomplished under the severe conditions imposed by nor'easters, hurricanes, and the unpredictable Atlantic Ocean. During the Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962, much of the work partially completed and a major piece of custom-built construction equipment called "The Big D" were destroyed. Seven workers were killed at various times during the construction. In April 1964, 42 months after construction began, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel opened to traffic, and the ferry service was discontinued.

[edit] Additional trestles and lanes added

Info sign at the rest area with map of new bridge

At a cost of $197 million, new parallel two-lane trestles were built both to alleviate traffic and for safety reasons, opening on April 19, 1999. This increased the capacity of the above-water portion of the facility to four lanes, added wider shoulders for the new southbound portion, facilitated needed repairs, and helped insure against a total closure should a trestle be struck by a ship or otherwise damaged (which had occurred twice in the past); partially for this reason, the parallel trestles are not located immediately adjacent to each other, reducing the chance that both would be damaged during a single incident.

While there has been planning work done to expand tunnel capacities as well, the facility currently continues to utilize only the original two-lane tunnels. Plans to replace the two-lane tunnels with new and deeper four-lane versions were postponed indefinitely in 2005 at the direction of the Virginia General Assembly. Debate centered around the facts that while greater bay shipping and security would be enhanced by replacing the existing tunnels, the traffic counts and substantial cost estimates dictate that improvements for other water crossings in the Hampton Roads area may become higher priorities.

[edit] CBBT and Lucius J. Kellam Jr

The Ferry Commission and transportation district it oversees, created in 1954, were later renamed for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. The CBBT district is a public agency and it is a legal subdivision of the Commonwealth of Virginia. However, the Bridge-Tunnel is supported financially by the tolls collected from the motorists who use the facility.

Eastern Shore native, businessman, and civic leader Lucius J. Kellam Jr. was the original Commission's first chairman. In a commentary at the time of his death in 1995, the Virginian-Pilot newspaper (Norfolk) recalled that Kellam had been involved in bringing the multi-million-dollar bridge-tunnel project from dream to reality.

Before it was built, Kellam handled a political fight over the location, and addressed concerns of the U.S. Navy about prospective hazards to navigation to and from the Norfolk Navy Base at Sewell's Point.

Kellam was also directly involved in the negotiations to finance the ambitious crossing with bonds. According to the newspaper article, "there were not-unfounded fears that (1) storm-driven seas and drifting or off-course vessels could damage, if not destroy, the span and (2) traffic might not be sufficient to service the entire debt in an orderly way. Sure enough, bridge portions of the crossing have occasionally been damaged by vessels, and there was a long period when holders of the riskiest bonds received no interest on their investment."

An icon of Eastern Virginia politics, Kellam remained chairman and champion of the CBBT throughout the hard times, and the bondholders were eventually paid as toll revenues caught up with expenses. He continued to serve until he was over 80 years old, finally retiring in 1993. He had held the post for 39 years.

The facility was named in his honor in 1987, over 20 years after it was first opened to traffic.

[edit] One of the Seven Engineering Wonders of the Modern World

Following the CBBT's opening in 1964, it was selected by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) as "One of the Seven Engineering Wonders of the Modern World" in a worldwide competition that included more than one hundred major projects.

The individual components of the Bridge-Tunnel are not the longest or the largest ever built. However, the total project was unique in the number of different types of major structures included in one crossing and the fact that it was built under adverse conditions.

[edit] Facts and figures

CBBT official logo

The CBBT is 17.6 miles (28.3 km) long from shore to shore, crossing what is essentially an ocean strait. Including land-approach highways, the overall facility is 23 miles (37 km) long and despite its length, there is only a height difference of 6 inches from the south to north end of the bridge-tunnel.

Key features are two one-mile tunnels beneath Thimble Shoals and Chesapeake navigation channels and two high-level bridges (75 ft; 23 m) over two other navigation channels: North Channel Bridge and Fisherman Inlet Bridge. The remaining portion is comprised of 12 miles (19 km) of low-level trestle, two miles of causeway, and four man-made islands.

Man-made islands, each approximately 5.25 acres (21,000 m²) in size, are located at each end of the two tunnels. Between North Channel and Fisherman Inlet, the facility crosses at-grade over Fisherman Island, a barrier island which includes the Fisherman Island National Wildlife Refuge administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Bridge-Tunnel's concrete supporting columns are called piles. If placed end to end, the piles alone could reach from New York to Philadelphia.

Toll collection facilities are located at each end of the facility. Tolls are paid in each direction, before crossing. As of 2006, the toll for cars (without trailers) traveling along the CBBT is $12. However, should a car make a return trip within 24 hours of the first, the second trip across only costs $5. Motorcycles pay the same toll as cars without trailers. All other vehicles are charged based on size and purpose and are not subject to the return trip discount.^[2] All tolls must be paid either in cash or by scrip tickets issued by the CBBT; there are currently no facilities for electronic toll collection, but the Bridge-Tunnel Commission has announced an $1.8 million project to install such equipment.^[3] Smart Tag/E-ZPass acceptance is anticipated by Fall 2007.^[4] The CBBT stands as the most expensive toll crossing in the United States.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel saves motorists 95 miles (152 km) and 1½ hours on a trip between Virginia Beach/Norfolk and New York. The $12 toll is partially offset by some savings of tolls in Maryland and Delaware on I-95.