The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel Commission (CBBT) selected a team led by Jacobs Engineering Group, Pasadena, Calif., to serve as design manager for a new design-build tunnel. The project will parallel one of two existing subsurface structures along the 23-mile toll crossing at Thimble Shoals Channel between Virginia Beach, Va., and the Delmarva Peninsula.
The project cost was not disclosed. But the decision to build the tunnel using design-build follows CBBT's decision in April to reject an unsolicited public-private partnership proposal offered by a team headed by Skanska Infrastructure Development and Kiewit Development Co.; the commission had deemed insufficient the proposed project's estimated cost of $800 million.