Originally scheduled for completion late this year, the new 4,300-ft-long Midtown Tunnel between Norfolk and Portsmouth, Va., is now on track for completion by the end of the summer. The Elizabeth River Crossings (ERC) project team opened one of the two lanes to traffic last month, marking a milestone in one of the nation’s largest public-private-partnership infrastructure projects.
ERC—a concessionaire that includes Australia’s Macquarie Group and a design-build joint venture of Skanska USA, Kiewit Construction and Weeks Marine Inc. (SKW)—began the $2.1- billion project in 2012. The team assumed operation of the 53-year-old state-owned Midtown Tunnel and the nearby twin-tube Downtown Tunnel, which also needed upgrades. Handling 37,000 vehicles daily, the original Midtown Tunnel was the most burdened two-lane road east of the Mississippi River, according to ERC.