NORFOLK, VA – The City of Norfolk’s former Visitors Center in Ocean View has been transformed into learning and community meeting space designed to encourage the public to discover more about the history of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnels and the nearly $4 billion dollar expansion project currently underway.



Working with the U.S. Navy which owns the property, and the City of Norfolk which holds a lease for the property, the Virginia Department of Transportation with 92% of project funding provided by the Hampton Roads Transportation Accountability Commission (HRTAC) will operate the center as an educational and learning center for the expansion project.

VDOT spent nearly a year rehabilitating the site and two-story building, which houses a ten-foot model of Mary The Tunnel Boring Machine, model of the project’s slurry treatment plant, artifacts uncovered during project excavations, historic pictures of the tunnels-past and present- and conference room. 

Also showcased are tributes to NASA pioneers Mary Jackson and Katharine Johnson for whom the TBM and slurry plant are named. One wall describes the contributions of HRTAC as the funding arm for HRBT Expansion and other regional projects currently underway throughout the VDOT Hampton Roads District totaling more than $5 billion of infrastructure funding, and video screens display a variety of tunneling stories and detail local roadway projects.

Media and the public are invited to an open house for the HRBT Welcome Center on December 4, 2024, from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m.