Intended to reduce congestion on area surface streets and arterial roads, the project was administered by Elizabeth River Crossings (ERC) and Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) as part of a 58-year public-private partnership.
Transportation around South Hampton Roads is complicated by the various branches of the Elizabeth River (Virginia), which are crossed by two major highways.
Efforts to extend the MLK Freeway have been in the works with VDOT as far back as the early 1990s, when the agency completed its initial environmental assessment.
[3] However, the Commission removed the project from the RTP after concluding that state funding would be insufficient, and because VDOT determined that "reliance on a regional gas tax [was] not a reasonably foreseeable source of revenue" for the plan.
[5] Based on this study, the MPO added the projects to the regions 2030 RTP, now estimated to cost around $779 million— if the Virginia General Assembly approved the new tolls and several tax increases.
After receiving the proposal, the General Assembly enacted House Bill 3202 introduced by State Delegate William J. Howell, which allowed the region to enact tolling on the project by creating the Hampton Roads Transportation Authority, as well as authorizing tax increases requested by the MPO to finance the other major projects in the region's plan, including the controversial civil remedial fees, a plan that would have allowed the HRTA to raise nearly $169 million in taxes in its first year.
On February 28, 2008, the State Supreme Court ruled in Marshall v. Northern Virginia Transportation Authority that the taxation authority granted to these non-elected bodies violated the Constitution of Virginia: The General Assembly also may not accomplish through Chapter 896 [HB 3202], indirectly, that which it is not empowered to do directly, namely, impose taxes on the citizenry in the absence of an affirmative, recorded vote of a majority of all members elected to each body of the General Assembly.
[14] After the lengthy review process required under the PPTA, then-Governor Bob McDonnell and VDOT executed the Comprehensive Agreement with ERC on December 5, 2011.
[15][16] Under the agreement, VDOT retains ownership and oversight of the tunnels, while ERC finances, builds, operates and maintains the facilities for a 58-year concession period.
The agreement gave ERC the authority to impose tolling on the roadway in order to recoup the private parties the money they put into the project.
[20] However, after public outcry at the rates, the incoming governor, Terry McAuliffe announced a further, $82.5 million buydown of the tolls through the completion of the construction.
[23][24] Each level of the project was laid out in detail in the Comprehensive Agreement as four separate projects/services, along with the dates that construction on them must be substantially completed to avoid the contract penalties.
The plan initially called for closing the tunnel on about 25 consecutive weekends from 8 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday, with traffic to be primarily detoured to the High Rise Bridge using I-464.
Fabrication of the tunnel's 11 concrete elements began in November 2012 in Sparrows Point, Maryland and are towed down the Chesapeake Bay to the Project site in Portsmouth for immersion and placement under the Elizabeth River.
This requires the permanent closure of two I-264 ramps: eastbound to Des Moines Ave, and Westbound to South Street, in accordance with the projects FHWA approval of the VDOT proposal.