DATE: Friday, November 21, 1997             TAG: 9711210620

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY DEBBIE MESSINA, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   48 lines

ADDITION TO BAY BRIDGE-TUNNEL IS 70% COMPLETE

Pile driving to construct the parallel span to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel will cease in a few weeks, as only 90 piles out of 2,580 remain ashore.

This is a small but significant milestone in the construction of the $200 million engineering wonder, which is nearly 70 percent complete. With pile driving winding down, the contractor is shutting down its pile-manufacturing operation at Little Creek.

Trestles must be built and roadways installed before the span is finished late next year.

``We're a few months ahead of schedule,'' said James K. Brookshire Jr., executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel District. ``We had a very good summer. The weather's been good, so we haven't had delays.''

Last year, hurricane threats twice slowed construction as the equipment had to be moved off the Bay to safe harbor.

The new bridge is opening in phases, so the existing span can be refurbished. The first stretch, from Fisherman's Island to the toll plaza on the Eastern Shore, opened last summer.

The next section, from Fisherman's Island to the northern tunnel, will open in March, and will be followed by the stretch from Virginia Beach to the southern tunnel next summer. Finally, the section between the two tunnels will open next fall.

Rehabilitation of the original structure, built in 1964, will continue through mid-1999.

Construction of the parallel span will improve safety and capacity. A series of deadly head-on collisions in recent months led the bridge-tunnel authority to outlaw passing.

The new, two-lane structure will carry motorists south. The existing structure will take motorists north. New tunnels are not included in the project, so two-way traffic will continue in the 2-mile-long tunnels.

The second bridge project will not cause an increase in the bridge-tunnel's $10 toll. The cost is being paid by a combination of cash reserves and a bond issue to be repaid from future toll revenues. ILLUSTRATION: MOTOYA NAKAMURA/The Virginian-Pilot

Trestles must be built and roadways installed before the parallel

span to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel is finished late next year.

James K. Brookshire Jr. of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel

District said, ``The weather's been good, so we haven't had

delays.''

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