It is a four-lane facility comprising bridges, trestles, artificial islands, and tunnels under the main shipping channels for Hampton Roads harbor in the southeastern portion of Virginia in the United States.

The HRBT includes two artificial islands for the tunnel portals, where Hampton Roads flows into Chesapeake Bay.

It is connected by an earthen causeway to Rip Raps, a 15 acres (6.1 ha) artificial island 250 feet (76 m) to the northeast, built in 1817 as part of the harbor defenses.

However, the northern bridge section of the HRBT runs 0.6 miles (0.97 km) north to the mainland of Hampton.

Given its proximity to the US Navy's Atlantic Fleet home base at Naval Station Norfolk, many nearby shipyards and critical port facilities, the HRBT design incorporates a tunnel instead of a more cost effective drawbridge.

In July 2009, the westbound tube partially flooded after a thunderstorm hit the Hampton Roads region.

[6] This closure forced hundreds of thousands of commuters, tourists, as well as Hampton Roads residents heading westbound for the Fourth of July holiday, to divert and go through the MMMBT or the James River Bridge, the only alternate routes to get to the peninsula.

The MMMBT had troubles of its own during the afternoon, as a multiple-vehicle collision shut down the northbound lanes, closing the tunnel and causing a 20-mile (32 km) traffic jam[7] along I-664.

The flooding of the Hampton Roads Bridge–Tunnel caused widespread concern about evacuation capabilities of the region during the approach of a hurricane, as the HRBT, MMMBT, and the James River Bridge serve as the primary hurricane evacuation routes for residents of Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Norfolk, and Chesapeake.

[7] At 7:30 pm on July 16, 2016, a two-car collision between a Volkswagen Passat and an Acura occurred three-quarters of the way inside the eastbound tunnel, which travels from Hampton to Norfolk.

[14][15] [16] On April 17, 2024, a 430-foot-long boring machine broke through a concrete-lined pit on North Island, finishing the outline of the new westbound tunnel.