ConDig (18-Dec-17).  The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is looking for a private sector partner for the expansion of the Hampton Roads bridge-tunnel project.

The agency has issued a request for qualifications (RFQ) for the design-build contract, which has an estimated price tag of between $3.3 billion and $3.8 billion.

A deadline for March 2 next year has been set for RFQs to be submitted, with short-listed teams to be notified in April.

Request for Proposals are anticipated to start in spring 2018, with the contract award earmarked for early 2019. Construction is expected to begin in mid-2019 and expected to be completed in 2024.

Under the project, the successful team will build another bridge-tunnel and widen the four-lane segments of Interstate 64 in Hampton and Norfolk to ease daily congestion between the Peninsula and South Hampton Roads.

For the tunnel portion of the work, teams may present their capabilities in immersed-tube tunneling, bored tunneling or both methods.

Further information about the project, including procurement details and the project’s planning-level design concept, which will be refined by the proposer teams during the RFP phase, is available at: www.HRBTexpansion.org.