Miles of Progress: I-64 Gap and HRBT Expansion projects are reshaping our megaregion
The Speakers:
Eric Thornton is the Richmond District Mega Projects engineer with the Virginia Department of Transportation.
Thornton graduated from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and is a registered Professional Engineer in Virginia and a licensed Certified Construction Manager.
He has over 14 years of experience in heavy highway construction. Some of his notable projects include the 11-bridge, Accelerated Bridge Construction, I-95 Bridge Replacement project, High Rise Bridge, and currently the 30-mile interstate widening I-64 Gap.
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Bradley Weidenhammer is the assistant project director for the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Expansion Project, where he is responsible for management and strategic guidance for the delivery of the complex design-build contract.
His 22-year career at VDOT includes time in the Williamsburg Residency, Hampton Roads District Location and Design, as well as construction and rehabilitation of the Midtown and Downtown tunnels between Portsmouth and Norfolk.
Weidenhammer is a registered Professional Engineer in Virginia.
He is a graduate of Georgia Tech.
Pair of major I-64 projects linking Hampton Roads and Richmond remain on schedule, officials say
By Ben Swenson | Correspondent
PUBLISHED: June 4, 2026 at 3:54 PM EDT | UPDATED: June 4, 2026 at 4:41 PM EDT
Two major construction projects on I-64 are moving along smoothly and will facilitate transportation and commerce between Hampton Roads and Richmond, Virginia Department of Transportation officials said Wednesday.
RVA757 Connects, a nonprofit aiming to foster economic opportunity and prosperity among the two regions, hosted a webinar on both projects.
Greg Gilligan, RVA757 Connect’s vice president of operations, told participants that the I-64 Gap Project, which expands the interstate from two lanes to three for 30 miles from York County to Henrico County, and the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel expansion, which expands the interstate to four lanes in each direction and adds two additional tunnels, “will define how people move throughout Virginia for the next 50 years.”
Construction crews have been working on the I-64 Gap Project’s three segments separately. They first began on segment A, from the Henrico-New Kent County border to mile marker 215.6, followed by segment C, from exit 234 in York County to mile marker 204.9. Work began most recently on segment B, which connects the two.
“We wanted to stagger and work from the bookends in,” said Richmond District Mega Projects Engineer Eric Thornton, which helps with availability of workers and gives them space to not have to work on top of one another.
Consequently, the completion dates for the segments vary: segment A is projected to be done in July 2027, segment C in November 2027 and segment B in May 2029.
The original projected costs of the three separate segments totaled $587.1 million, although Thornton said that the expenses increased slightly with some minor changes, such as bridge replacements instead of rehabilitation when inspection showed structural deficiencies.
On segment A alone, Thornton said, 104,000 tons of material are being used for the pavement’s base layer – a figure that is one-fifth of the total of the pavement in VDOT’s Richmond region.
Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel expansion Assistant Project Director Bradley Weidenhammer said the two new tunnels get most of the attention at the HRBT expansion, but there’s much more to it than that. Along a 10-mile corridor from Hampton to Norfolk, two lanes in each direction are being expanded to four, 20 bridges are being widened and rehabilitated and five will be replaced.
State and local sales taxes fund 92% of the $3.9 billion expansion – the most expensive transportation project in Virginia history – and state and federal dollars pick up the remaining 8%.
Construction crews completed the two new tunnels underneath Hampton Roads’ shipping channel using a 46-foot tunnel boring machine in April 2024 and September 2025. Although the boring of the tunnels represented significant progress, Weidenhammer said there’s still a lot of work to be done, such as installing lighting, ventilation, fireproofing materials and interior walls.
“Mining the tunnels was half the battle,” he said. “We now have to completely outfit those tunnels.”
This summer, according to Weidenhammer, work crews will tackle much of the landside and bridge work that will tie into the new tunnels. Construction crews will continue to shift traffic as elements are completed.
On the Norfolk side of the tunnels, for instance, I-64 eastbound traffic has already shifted, and Weidenhammer said that he expects westbound traffic to shift as crews complete widening the stretch of the interstate through Willoughby.
The expansion project will be substantially complete – meaning motorists will be driving through the new tunnels – in February, according to VDOT, with final completion in August of next year.
“We are working towards the 2027 completion date,” he said.
Ben Swenson, ben.swenson05@gmail.com
Two of the most transformative infrastructure projects in Virginia's history are well underway — and together, they are poised to reshape the economic future of the Richmond region to Hampton Roads corridor.
Join us on Wednesday, June 3 at noon for a free webinar to get first-hand, up-to-the-minute updates on both the I-64 Gap Project and the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Expansion Project.
The webinar will give you an inside track on construction timelines and what those using the interstate can expect over the next several months. These two mega-projects represent a once-in-a-generation investment that will define how people and goods move through Virginia for the next 50 years.
I-64 Gap Project
The 29-mile stretch of I-64 between Richmond and Williamsburg has long been a notorious chokepoint — the last remaining section of the corridor carrying only two lanes in each direction, frustrating commuters, truckers, and tourists for decades.
Since its November 2023 groundbreaking, the $750 million project has been moving forward on three simultaneous segments (Gap A, B, and C), ultimately adding a third lane in each direction from Bottoms Bridge in New Kent County to the Lightfoot exit near Williamsburg.
The widening project is an initiative that RVA757 Connects has advocated for, as it will increase capacity and mobility, alleviate congestion, improve safety, and enhance connectivity along the I-64 corridor. The organization advocated for funding in spring 2022 when the General Assembly agreed to fund much of the project.
At the organization's Convergence event that October, then-Virginia Secretary of Transportation W. Sheppard Miller III credited RVA757 Connects directly for its advocacy work.
"The reason the I-64 Gap project got funded is … the work that you all have done," Miller said. "I thank you for all your support and your partnership with us in completing this major project. You placed those op-eds, you placed those media stories, you sent letters to the budget conferees, you supported VDOT directly, and all of that contributed to our efforts to secure the funding. We just could not have gotten here without you."
The project’s final segment is expected to be completed by May 2029.
Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Expansion Project
At $3.9 billion, the HRBT Expansion is the largest highway construction project in Virginia's history.
Spanning nearly 10 miles of I-64 from Hampton to Norfolk, it will grow the crossing from four lanes to eight and includes two new bored tunnels, full trestle replacements, a new Mallory Street Bridge, and rehabilitation of 20 bridges.
The project's tunnel boring machine, "Mary," completed her second tunnel in late 2025 and has since been dismantled and shipped back to Germany. Crews are now focused on final installations — fire and life safety systems, mechanical and electrical components, and roadway widening.
The project is scheduled for completion in 2027, coinciding with the completion of the 45-mile Hampton Roads Express Lanes Network. As a result, this summer's construction season is critical to keeping the project on schedule.
