Drivers will pay more money to cross the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay starting Jan. 1.
The toll for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel will increase by $2, costing $16 during off-peak days.
And it will jump to $21, a $3 increase, during peak season, which is Friday through Sunday from May 15 to Sept. 15.
Return trips within 24 hours will still cost $6 during off-peak days and will be $1 during peak season, with an E-Z Pass. The discounted rate for motorists who made 30 trips in 30 days will increase by a buck, to $7.
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel Commission recently approved the new rate, the third in a series of 10% increases scheduled every five years to help pay for a major expansion of the 17.6-mile bridge. The last hike was in 2019.
Toll charges for those using the Downtown and Midtown tunnels between Norfolk and Portsmouth are also slated for increases at the start of the new year.
Built in 1964, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel carries traffic over about 17 miles between Virginia Beach and Virginia’s Eastern Shore.
Though the bridge sections now carry two lanes of traffic in each direction, the traffic still converges into one lane each way in the two tunnel portions. But with the $756 million Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel expansion project, a new tube is being added to the system’s southern tunnel. The northern tunnel is expected to get a similar expansion in the 2030s.
Construction of a parallel bridge/tunnel is scheduled to be completed in 2027 after several delays including when digging crews struck a large steel anchor over the summer.
A public information session on the toll and the tunnel project will be held at 4 p.m. Dec. 14 at the Eastern Shore Welcome Center, 32383 Lankford Highway in Cape Charles.
Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com