THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 6, 1997 TAG: 9702060337
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBBIE MESSINA, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 31 lines
Delays are expected overnight for motorists heading west through the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel for the next nine months while a new ceiling is installed.
One lane will be closed between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. every Sunday through Thursday night. Both lanes will close for about 20 minutes five or six times through the night while trucks move in and out of the tube.
Work started this week and will continue until November.
``This may cause some inconvenience for motorists, but it is the safest and most reasonable way to get the work done,'' said Jim Cleveland, the Virginia Department of Transportation's local administrator.
The closings are necessary because trucks transporting ceiling panels need to straddle the center line to accommodate the panels' size. Installation also requires the rigs to use both lanes.
``We've had similar closures in the past, so we don't expect major inconveniences,'' Cleveland said. ``Yet, we never hesitate to remind people that the I-664 Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel is an excellent alternative to the I-64 tunnel whether or not there is work going on.''
The contractors, McLean Contracting Co. and Archer-Western Contractors, will install 7,400 panels along the 7,013-foot tunnel, which opened in 1957. The tiles are 12 feet wide and either 1 or 2 feet long.
The ceiling in the eastbound tube, which opened in 1976, does not need to be replaced.