By james art 
Inside the new tunnel of the Chesapiq Bay-Tunnel BridgePhoto ofCbbt
The Chesapeake Bay Tunnel project has reached a major moment. Chesi, the tunnel boring machine that cleans the road, has completed its mining mission this week.
CBBT adds a new tunnel with two strips that is about a mile long. Chessi started working in February 2023, but in May 2023 she struck an obstacle that CBBT announced that it was an anchor on a ship made in England in the early 20th Century. Chesi was unemployed for 8 months until she was removed.
In May 2024, Chesi returned to work, moving an average of about 50 feet a day, according to CBBT. On Monday, January 27, 2025, CBBT announced that Chessie reached its destination on two islands.
The yield was stopped so that the contractor’s time could remove the temporary reinforcing supports and steel beams that were in place in the receiving pit. On Wednesday, January 29, the row tunnels through the rest of the receiving wall.
Left: Chassis of her final destination, piercing through the receiving wall. To the right: chassis before embarking on your mining missionPhoto ofCbbt
Chesi was designed and built specifically for this project. CBBT said it had extracted over 6300 feet under the Thimble Shoal channel. The stalls on the side of approximately 500,000 cubic yards soil and install nearly 10,000 concrete segments, each weighing 10 tonnes, CBBT added.
Her work is already done. Syps will be out of operation and demobilized.
Once the SCI is removed, the construction of the roadway inside the tunnel will begin together with the installation of electrical/mechanical systems and the construction of supporting buildings.
The CBBT project will currently be predicted in early 2028. Once it is completed, the new tunnel will wear two lanes of traffic to the south, while the existing tunnel will carry two lanes on northern traffic.
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