Construction of a parallel tube for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, to be built under the Thimble Shoals Channel, will begin as soon as the project's governing board can complete the financial arrangements - achieving an important milestone in an expansion first planned in 1987.
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel Commission spent more than a year of review and deliberation before it recently approved the resolution to begin the first step in the second phase of the Parallel Crossing Project. The first phase was finished in 1999, but financial constraints prevented starting the second.
Now, due to a combination of careful and conservative financial planning, historically low interest rates and available low-cost federal financing sources, we are poised to be able to deliver on the promise of prior commissions.
CBBT parallel tunnels often are perceived to be necessary only to handle traffic growth that the existing two-directional tunnels cannot accommodate. This variable is one of many that have been studied and enumerated by the Joint Legislative Audit Review Commission, both houses of the Virginia General Assembly, the Virginia Department of Transportation, as well as traffic engineering firms.
However, unlike all other marine crossings in the Hampton Roads region, users of the CBBT lack a viable alternate route in the event of a closure from catastrophe, vehicular or maritime accidents or mechanical failure.
The CBBT is the sole roadway connecting the Eastern Shore and the rest of the commonwealth. An extended interruption in that connection could be economically devastating to Accomack and Northampton counties and would disrupt a critical travel link to the tourism-dependent cities in Hampton Roads and the region's military bases. Access to critical medical facilities for Eastern Shore residents could be cut off.
Both of the existing tunnels are 50 years old. With advanced age comes an increased maintenance need. Ordinary maintenance work in the tunnels creates an average of 1,400 hours of tunnel lane closures per year, resulting in increased crossing times. This does not include closure hours for major repairs such as the tunnel roadway repair project scheduled for later this year.
A recent travel-time analysis performed by the CBBT's consulting engineers projected that the number of motorists experiencing delays and the hours of delay would more than double by 2030, resulting in more than 693,800 users experiencing more than 83,400 hours of delay each year.
One positive aspect of the United States' slow economic recovery is that it has created an aggressive bidding environment for major infrastructure projects. At the same time, interest rates for municipal market debt remain near all-time historic lows. Importantly, a toll increase now would help the CBBT to establish the strongest credit rating possible, further reducing borrowing costs.
What does this mean for motorists? The impact on local users is minimal with a proposed toll rate schedule that includes a 24-hour round trip rate that increases by only $1, preserves the previously approved commuter rate of $5 per trip and includes new levels of round-trip discounting for passenger vehicles towing trailers. Seasonal travelers will bear the majority of the rate increase.
Time costs money. The financing plan anticipates using the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan program to accelerate the project by several years and potentially save more than $100 million in project costs. It also hopes to save money by using a design-build procurement method.
Finally, the commission has proposed increasing the current toll schedule to advance the project by several additional years and potentially save another $100 million.
Unfortunately, the CBBT cannot move forward with this project without a toll rate increase, as we do not receive federal or state funding. Our financial models show that a financing plan without a toll increase leaves a future funding gap well over $400 million.
We want to hear from you before making the final decision. The CBBT will host four public information sessions in Onley, Eastville, Norfolk and Hampton between Wednesday and Aug. 8 to educate the public about the facts behind this important decision.
Please visit our website at www.cbbt.com/IS2013.html to learn more about the project and to find the dates, times and locations of these sessions. Customers wishing to submit written comments to the commission may do so via email at marketing@cbbt.com.
Aubrey L. Layne Jr., chairman of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel Commission, lives in Virginia Beach.