NORFOLK, Va. — The U.S. Secretary of Transportation joined Governor Glenn Youngkin on Wednesday to mark a milestone for the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Expansion Project .

Mary, the massive tunnel boring machine (TBM) named after NASA's Mary Jackson, broke through the headwall at the HRBT South Island. This is the final tunneling milestone of the expansion project.

The tunnel boring machine launched from the South Island on the Norfolk side in April 2023, tunneling at a rate of about 50 feet per day before reaching the Hampton side . Then, in October 2024, it began creating the twin eastbound tunnel, heading from Hampton back toward Norfolk.

29 months later, the excavation of both tunnels is complete.

Local, regional, state, and federal leaders came together Wednesday afternoon at

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