CAPE CHARLES, Va. (Delmarva Now) — Repairs to a tunnel on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel that was damaged when a heavy piece of construction equipment hit the ceiling and fell onto the roadway will take around three weeks to complete, according to a spokesman.
The concrete ceiling between the roadway and an upper air circulation space needs repairs after the incident, which closed the nearly 20-mile span for hours on Monday.
All lanes of traffic on the bridge-tunnel reopened early Tuesday morning — about 17 hours after the equipment fell into the roadway inside the Thimble Shoal tunnel.
The repair work will include demolition of damaged concrete and placement of new concrete and tile in the tunnel, said Tom Anderson, deputy director of operations and finance for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel District.
Several tiles need to be replaced, mainly at the tunnel portal and in the area where the equipment came to rest against the tunnel wall, and a few light fixtures also were damaged and will be replaced, he said.
The repairs will be done at night, between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., with a single lane closure.
Traffic will be diverted around the work area, similar to what is done with other maintenance work in the span's tunnels.
The work should be completed by the end of October, Anderson said.
The incident involved a 22,000-pound sheet-pile-driving hammer that was being transported from one island to another on a tractor-trailer operated by an employee of Chesapeake Tunnel Joint Venture — the design-build team constructing a second, two-lane tunnel under the Thimble Shoal navigation channel, next to the existing tunnel.
The role of the company in the accident is still under investigation, and specific corrective actions to be undertaken will be identified as part of that investigation, according to Anderson.
PHOTOS: Tractor-trailer crash shuts down CBBT for hours
Construction on the parallel tunnel project at Thimble Shoals officially started Oct. 1, 2017, after a groundbreaking ceremony in September.
It is estimated the project will be completed in fall 2022, at a projected cost of nearly $756 million. When completed, the new, 5,700-foot tunnel will carry two lanes of traffic southbound and the existing tunnel will carry two lanes of traffic northbound.
A toll relief fund is being set up for motorists who were inconvenienced by Monday's incident, according to a press release.
"We understand that many of our customers suffered extreme inconveniences and for that we apologize. While we are legally unable to provide a toll relief fund given our legislative enablement and bond contracts, CTJV, the responsible party for this accident, is setting up a toll relief fund for travelers who were inconvenienced," a press release from the Chesapeake Bay and Bridge-Tunnel District said.
Details about the fund have not yet been released.