June 2025 Edition

This month, our timing couldn't have been more perfect as our most recent project update video is now available. As Project Director, the most meaningful message I can offer is best illustrated by the amazing progress our team has made over the last several months. We encourage you to take a few minutes and enjoy our latest offering.

As you take in the new sights each day while traveling our corridor, please slow down, put down your phone, and drive safe!

Oops, She Did It Again!

TBM crew install the final segment for ring 726.

Mary The Tunnel Boring Machine has surpassed her best performance again, posting a new record for mining and installation of tunnel liners.

Topping her May 2025 record, the best week yet occurred the week of June 9, 2025, when the TBM mined for 440 feet, adding 66 rings to the new twin tube. That’s three rings more than her previous best week earlier this year. The new twin tunnel is now more than 75 percent complete.

Attention also focuses on tunnel approach structures on both sides of the twin tubes where trestle bridges also continue to take shape.

(Top right) TBM crews extend the machine's slurry lines to reach the TBM as she progresses.

(Bottom right) TBM mechanic swaps out one of the cutter head's interchangeable tools

Big Apple Tunnel Team Looks to HRBT Expansion Project for Lessons Learned

More Pours Planned for the New Tunnels

As Mary continues to bore toward a breakthrough on the South Island in fall 2025, tunnel interior crews are constructing permanent structures in the first bored tunnel. Steady concrete pours are critical to advance construction of the tunnel's plenum wall, egress corridor, and low point pump station.

In addition to the tunnel liners, 50,000 cubic yards of concrete will be used to complete interior work in the new tunnels. Of the additional concrete, 11,000 cubic yards has already been poured.

Islands: Something Old, Something New

Originally constructed in 1957, the westbound Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel became the first tunnel in the U.S. to be built between two manmade islands. As the region grew, so did traffic volumes and the need for additional capacity at the HRBT. To accommodate space for the new bored tunnels, tunnel approach structures and tie-ins to new bridge decks, North Island was expanded by 15-acres as part of the project. Thankfully, the South Island was expanded during previous construction and only required a minimal 3 additional acres to support the current undertaking.

Over Memorial Day weekend, crews completed the last base slab on North Island. This significant milestone means a continuous driving surface exists between Hampton and the new twin tunnels. 

Crews continue excavations for the new approach on South Island continues. With more than 70% of the area excavated, crews will begin the final stretches of base slabs in Norfolk. Base slabs are the foundation for the eventual roadway that will carry traffic between the South Trestle and new twin tunnels.  

Intelligent Transportation Systems Reach New South Trestle

In preparation for an upcoming traffic shift that will direct eastbound traffic onto the new South Trestle, crews are working to integrate the new crossing into VDOT's traffic management systems. Team members are installing overhead sign structures, signs, and lane use signals to ensure proper advanced notification of changing road conditions. 

Landside Project Milestone

As seen above in the Summer 2025 HRBT Expansion Project tour update, milestone landside bridge construction in Norfolk continued with traffic shifted onto new roadway between W. Bay Avenue and Mason Creek. Crews widened one mile of roadway and expanded four bridges and overpasses including the Oastes Creek Bridge, W. Evans Street overpass, W. Bayview Boulevard overpass and Mason Creek Bridge. The traffic shift will allow crews access to the median where they will work to widen the I-64 West roadway and bridges.

Eastbound traffic shifted onto a mile of new roadway in Norfolk on Sunday, June 22.

Willoughby Bay Bridge widening June 2025

Mallory Street Bridge widening June 2025

Tunnel Talk, Straight Talk

HRBT Expansion Team Turns Up the Heat for Summer Outreach

Willoughby Civic League president Rusty West and his wife, Judy, stopped by the Welcome Center during an open house.

Project Manager Michelle Martin shares construction updates with Open House guests on Sunday, June 8.

More than 70 students from Norfolk Public Schools Junior University program visited the Welcome Center for a day of STEM presentations including HRBT's bird monitoring program.

STARBASE Victory brought the Portsmouth Public School Coders to the Welcome Center for day two of camp.

As project construction ramps up this summer, so has HRBT Expansion outreach.

In early June, residents from the River Forrest Shores/Wayside Manor/Easton Place Civic League hosted project staff to learn about tunnel construction and interstate improvements during their monthly meeting. Seniors at Virginia Beach’s First Colonial Inn also invited project staff to the First Colonia Road facility for a project briefing. One resident shared he was a crane operator for the construction of the Downtown Tunnel in Norfolk in the early 1950s.

With summer camps in session, youth engagement is also picking up across Hampton Roads. Nearly 40 rising third through seven graders kicked off their week at Camp E.W. Young Green STEM Summer Camp with a look at mining artifacts, and they participated in a hands-on tunnel boring activity. Norfolk Public Schools’ Junior University and STARBASE Victory Portsmouth Public School Coders also visited the HRBT Welcome Center for a STEM enrichment day in June. VDOT and HRCP staff pitched in to give students a glimpse into the broad range of engineering and construction careers.

July HRBT Open House Hours

9401 4th View Street Norfolk, VA 

Saturday, July 12 from 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.

Monday, July 28 from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.

There is much more to transportation than the roads, tunnels, and bridges we drive on. It’s a complex system that relies on utilities, communication networks, and management systems that help keep traffic moving. For the 10-mile HRBT Expansion Project, Resident Engineer Evelyn Genuino oversees those critical elements. Now with more than 30 years of experience spanning multiple industries, Genuino has served as the project's lead consultant for utilities, integrated traffic systems (ITS), and tunnel systems since 2022. 

While other Resident Engineers focus on specific sections of the corridor, she manages installation of the project's lighting, overhead signs, traffic signals, power, and internet. She’s also overseeing relocation of HRBT's electrical substations in Hampton and construction of a new backup substation in Norfolk.

Operations this critical require a specialized expertise that Genuino began building in the Philippines where she was born and raised. After earning a five-year degree in engineering and electronic communications, she and her husband moved to the United States in 1991. At 22, Genuino began her career as a shipboard electrician/electronic technician building ships until she became a consulting field engineer. Determined to advance her career in the states, she enrolled as a student at Old Dominion University where she earned a second degree in electrical engineering while simultaneously working on shipboard communications and elevator systems for the Navy. 

Never afraid of a challenge, Genuino used her elevator systems experience to try her hand at moveable bridges. She became the sole electrical engineer working on the Gilmerton Bridge. Next, she ventured into tunnels as lead quality inspector and later resident engineer for quality on the Midtown Tunnel project. From there, Genuino’s exploration of the transportation industry continued with experiences working on light rail extensions in North Carolina and Maryland before joining Team HRBT. When asked what’s on the horizon after the expansion is complete, she says she hopes to add an airport or high-rise bridge project to her portfolio. 



When she isn’t busy at work ensuring seamless integration and operation of intricate project-wide systems, Genuino is a volunteer companion and dedicated church member with plans to help build a new church in 2026. She is a proud wife and mother of one son, a military servicemember, who shares in her professional ambition and outlook that "when opportunity knocks, you open it".

Sounds of Progress

New HRBT South Trestle June 2025

As of Thursday, June 12, a project milestone on the Hampton Roads Express Lane (HREL) Hampton Segment was reached with the shifting of I-64 east traffic to the newly widened and rehabilitated westbound Hampton River bridge. This new traffic pattern followed the previous shift of I-64 west traffic to the westbound Hampton River bridge in early May.

These traffic pattern changes marked the end of the public use of two I-64 east bridges, one over the Hampton River and the other over the east branch of the Hampton River. These bridges, originally constructed in 1958, will be demolished and two new bridges constructed.

The long-term traffic configuration is estimated to be in place until late 2026, when the construction of the new eastbound Hampton River bridges is anticipated to be completed and reopened to eastbound traffic.

To learn more about the HREL Hampton Segment, visit https://www.vdot.virginia.gov/projects/major-projects/64expresslanes/about-hrel/hampton-segment-4c/.