The $ 3.9 million expansion of the Hampton Road Pont in Virginia reached another milestone on September 24, as its tunnel boring machine was broken through a retaining wall to complete a second 46 -foot tube in diameter, 7,900 feet in length, which will end up adding a very necessary capacity for congested crossing.
According to the Virginia Department of Transportation, the TBM moved a total of more than a million cumics of sand and clay as compressed on a 3 -mile back and forth route that extended more than 100 feet below the riverbed and up to 173 feet below the average level of surface area. The agency said the machine set a world productivity record for their class/TBM size, boring 366 feet in one week.
Along the way, the TBM installed about 2,400 tunnel rings composed of approximately 21,600 prefabricated segments.
The boring machine of 430 feet variable tunnel of 4,700 tons began its round trip under the port in April 2023, completing the first tube less than a year later. After an intricate turn process through nitrogen table technology and undergoing routine maintenance, it began to bore the second tunnel last October.
In parallel with a couple of two -lane tunnels, opened in 1957 and 1976, the new tubes were part of the largest road construction project in Virginia Dot. Hampton Roads Connector Partners (HRCP) – a joint Dragados design company USA, Vinci, Dodin Camenon Bernard and FlatIRON builders – is also building 17,000 feet of new and updated marine disorders to expand the four to eight lanes crossing to better accommodate the daily traffic volumes that can exceed 100,000 vehicles during the summer months.
Two lanes in each direction will bring the general purpose traffic, with the other two designated as express lanes and the revenue for operations, maintenance and finance other infrastructure projects in the region.
Although the TBM head is out of the tunnel, the department claims that it still has five rings to be installed before it can be dismantled, a process that will be started in November after the removal of the project’s slurry treatment plant. The contractors will now continue with the inner creation of the two tunnels.
The dowry says that the project, which began in 2020 and also includes 25 new and reconstructed bridges and incorporations of road capacity on the sides of Hampton and Norfolk of the port, has continued on the path from the “impacts of cost and unforeseen programs” forced “forced” a In early 2014, reset its integral agreement with contractors.
The TBM was named by NASA’s math pioneer and engineer Mary W. Jackson, who was performed in the movie “Hidden Figures”. The machine was supported by “Katherine”, the 92,500 -square -meter Slurry treatment plant, named for Jackson, also a pioneer in NASA’s colleague, Katherine Johnson, has a flow capacity of 13,200 GPM, the largest in North America, according to Virginia Dot.
The substantial completion of the project is now set for February 2027.
