HRBT Expansion faces 18-month delay

Last year the design-build contractor Hampton Roads Connector Partners (HRCP), a consortium of Dragados USA, Vinci, Flatiron Constructors, and Dodin Campenon Bernard, requested an extension because of “unforeseen circumstances”.

The project is now scheduled to reach substantial completion on February 26, 2027, and final completion on August 27, 2027; however, HRCP has an early completion incentive of US$90m if substantial completion is finished by September 2026.

The US$3.9bn Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel is the largest highway construction project in Virginia’s history. It aims to ease congestion along a 16km corridor on the I-64 through the addition of twin, two-lane bored tunnels and the widening of four-lane segments. It is the Virginia Department of Transportation’s (VDOT) first bored tunnel.

In a statement, VDOT’s Hampton Roads district engineer, Christopher Hall, said VDOT and HRCP were determined to deliver a world-class infrastructure project for the Hampton Roads region as efficiently and safely as possible.

“A tremendous amount of work has been accomplished to date. HRCP has achieved a multitude of unprecedented milestones to include constructing the 15-acre expansion of the North Island, reassembling the second largest TBM in North America, completing the largest continuous concrete pour in VDOT history, and boring and building nearly 90% of the first of the two new tunnels,” said Hall.