Peninsula In Passage

The Passage Continues

Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel The Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge Tunnel was as critical to the development of North Suffolk as the James River Bridge System was when it opened in the 1920s. The bridge-tunnel name honors the battle

between two Civil War ironclads, the Monitor and the Merrimac (CSS Virginia), less than a mile from the tunnel site. Traveling north on the tunnel motorists can see the Newport News marine terminals and shipyards to the left and the Norfolk Naval base to the right.

Design began in 1977 for the crossing to carry I-664 across the James with a mile of tunnel running under the shipping channel and three miles of twin, two lane trestle bridges. On the Suffolk side of the proposed bridge-tunnel, developer Robert T. Williams was poised, waiting, plans at hand and ready to launch the Harbour View planned community. He knew the new highway link would open the floodgates to a wave of change in North Suffolk. According to the Virginia Department of Transportation - In 1985 the contract for the first island was awarded and by March, 1988, the first section of tunnel was lowered into place. The $126 million contract for building and lowering the tunnel section of the project was the largest single contract ever awarded by the Virginia Department of Transportation up to that time. The construction was a joint venture of the

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