The Parallel Thimble Shoal Tunnel Project at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel reached a significant milestone on Monday, January 27, 2025 when the Herrenknecht TBM Chessie - measuring 13.26 m (43.5 feet) in diameter and an overall length of 93.88 m (308 feet) - reached her end destination after mining more than 1,920.24 m (6,300 feet), breaking through the receiving pit on Two Island at Thimble Shoal Channel: click here for the video.
Mining was then paused to allow Chesapeake Tunnel Joint Venture (CTJV), the design-build contractor for this project, to remove the temporary bracing struts and steel beam from the receiving wall. Mining resumed on Wednesday morning as Chessie tunnelled through the remaining portion of the receiving wall: click here for the video.
Mining for this two-lane, approximately one-mile long tunnel began in February 2023. In May 2023, Chessie struck an obstruction, later determined to be a large ship’s anchor, manufactured in England at the turn of the 20th century. Encountering obstructions while tunnelling is not an uncommon occurrence, but this strike resulted in an additional eight months of construction to safely remove the obstruction. Tunnelling resumed almost one year later in May 2024, averaging 15.24 m (50 feet) a day.
The TBM was appropriately named Chessie by then 6th grader Grace Bentley of Nandua Middle School in a naming contest held throughout the region. Over the course of its mining, Chessie removed approximately 382,277.4 m3 (500,000 cubic yards) of soil and installed nearly 10,000 concrete segments, each weighing 10 t.
The design-build contractor for this project is Chesapeake Tunnel Joint Venture (CTJV), a team comprised of Dragados USA and Schiavone Construction Company, LLC. Now TBM Chessie will be decommissioned and demobilized from the Parallel Thimble Shoal Tunnel project. CTJV will then begin to construct the roadway inside the tunnel, install the electrical/mechanical systems and construct the support buildings. Once complete, the new tunnel will carry two lanes of traffic southbound and the existing tunnel will carry two lanes of traffic northbound. Current forecast for project completion is early 2028.
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