The Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel Expansion Project reached another milestone Wednesday as Mary, the affectionate name for the massive tunnel boring machine doing much of the heavy lifting, broke through onto the North Island, marking roughly the halfway point of her journey.

Now, Mary will have to be turned around to dig back towards Norfolk to create the second tunnel of what will be two new eastbound lanes on I64, a process that is expected to take about five months. This first tunnel took about 51 weeks and the Virginia Department of Transportation is aiming to use the lessons learned to make the return trip quicker, in about 11 months, according to Ryan Banas, project director for VDOT.

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