Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel
| Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel | |
|---|---|
_crossing_the_North_Channel_of_the_Chesapeake_Bay_in_Northampton_County,_Virginia.jpg)
Coming down from the high-level portion near the north end.
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| Coordinates | 37°01′48″N 76°05′09″W / 37.029966°N 76.085815°W |
| Carries | 4 lanes (4 on bridges, 2 in tunnels) of  US 13
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| Crosses | Chesapeake Bay |
| Locale | Virginia Beach, to Cape Charles, Virginia, U.S. |
| Official name | Lucius J. Kellam Jr. Bridge–Tunnel |
| Maintained by | Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel Commission |
| Characteristics | |
| Design | Fixed link: low-level trestle, single-tube tunnels, artificial islands, truss bridges, high-level trestle |
| Total length | 17.6 miles (28.3 km) |
| Clearance below | 75 feet (22.9 m) (North Channel) 40 feet (12.2 m) (Fisherman Inlet) |
| History | |
| Opened | April 15, 1964 (northbound) April 19, 1999 (southbound) |
| Statistics | |
| Toll | Cars $15 (each direction, peak, round trip discount available) E-ZPass |
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel (CBBT) is a 23-mile (37 km) fixed link crossing at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in the U.S. state of Virginia. It connects Northampton County on the Delmarva Peninsula with Virginia Beach, which is part of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. The bridge–tunnel originally combined 12 miles (19 km) of trestle, two 1-mile-long (1.6 km) tunnels, four artificial islands, four high-level bridges, approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) of causeway, and 5.5 miles (8.9 km) of approach roads—crossing the Chesapeake Bay and preserving traffic on the Thimble Shoals and Chesapeake shipping channels. It replaced vehicle ferry services that operated from South Hampton Roads and from the Virginia Peninsula from the 1930s. Financed by toll revenue bonds, the bridge–tunnel was opened on April 15, 1964, and remains one of only ten bridge–tunnel systems in the world, three of which are located in Hampton Roads, Virginia.
Since it opened, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel has been crossed by more than 100 million vehicles. The CBBT complex carries U.S. Route 13, the main north–south highway on Virginia's Eastern Shore, and, as part of the East Coast's longstanding Ocean Highway, provides the only direct link between the Eastern Shore and South Hampton Roads regions, as well as an alternate route to link the Northeast and points in between with Norfolk and the Carolinas. The bridge–tunnel saves motorists 95 miles (153 km) and 1 1⁄2 hours on a trip between Virginia Beach/Norfolk and points north and east of the Delaware Valley without going through the traffic congestion in the Baltimore–Washington Metropolitan Area. The $15 toll is partially offset by some savings of tolls in Maryland and Delaware on I-95. From 1995 to 1999, at a cost of almost $200 million, the capacity of the above-water portion was increased to four lanes. An upgrade of the two-lane tunnels was proposed but has not been carried out.
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