With tunneling on a new one-mile tube for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel set to begin next year, project officials are readying plans for handling an estimated 500,000 cu yd of potentially tainted spoil to be produced by a 42-ft-dia tunnel-boring machine, currently under construction in Germany. The Dragados USA Inc. and Schiavone Construction Co. LLC design-build joint venture’s “worst-case” permitting strategy assumes all bored material will contain sufficient levels of petroleum-based TBM lubricants to require disposal at a designated landfill. Once tunneling begins, sample testing coordinated with state environmental officials will determine whether contaminant levels will allow for other, less expensive disposal options. Regardless of where the bored material goes, all disposal costs are to be borne by the Dragados-Schiavone team under its $756-million contract.