Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel

(google mapgoogle road map,road maps,route map,street map,london map,delhi road map,delhi map,road conditions,india road map)

(the highway,highway patrol,highway to hell,highway conditions,highway code,highway 1,lost highway,road conditions,highway road conditions,highway star)

A man-made island across the navigational channel of the mouth of Hampton Roads from Old Point Comfort was created for Fort Calhoun (a portion of the Fort Monroe complex later renamed Fort Wool). This man-made island found a new purpose in 1957, when it was used to anchor the south part of the Hampton Roads Bridge-tunnel.

The HRBT has two 12-foot (3.7 m)-wide (3.7 m) lanes each way, on separately built bridge-tunnel structures. The original two-lane structure replaced a ferry system and opened November 1, 1957 at a cost of $44 million dollars as a toll facility. The bridge-tunnel was originally signed as State Route 168 and U.S. Route 60. It later received the Interstate 64designation, and, much later, SR 168 was truncated south of the crossing.

The construction of the original HRBT was funded with toll revenue bonds. The bonds were paid off before a second portion was opened in 1976.

The construction of the $95 million second portion of the HRBT was funded as part of the Interstate Highway System as authorized under the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, as a portion of I-64, which means that it was funded with 90% FHWA funds from the Highway Trust Fund and 10% state DOT funds. When the second span was opened to traffic, the tolls were removed from the earlier portion.

The I-64 HRBT has two man-made tunnel portal islands, at the place where Hampton Roads flows into the Chesapeake Bay. The two man-made tunnel portal islands were widened to the west to accommodate the parallel bridge-tunnel project work accomplished between 1972 and 1976.