Old HRBT concrete gets new life as artificial reef in Chesapeake Bay

HAMPTON, Va. — Concrete torn from the aging Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel is getting a second life beneath the waters of the Chesapeake Bay, where state officials say it will help build fish habitat while reducing landfill waste as part of the massive tunnel expansion project.

The $3.9 billion Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Expansion is one of Virginia’s largest transportation projects, adding twin new tunnels and new trestle bridges to double traffic capacity along the heavily traveled corridor between Hampton and Norfolk. But alongside the new construction, another major task is underway: dismantling much of the bridge-tunnel’s decades-old infrastructure.

By the time the project wraps up next year, workers are expected to remove roughly 100,000 tons of concrete — about 200 million pounds of material. Rather than sending all of it to landfills, the project team and the state are redirecting some of the demolished concrete to Virginia’s artificial reef program, where it can serve as underwater habitat for marine life.

Transportation officials say the reuse effort provides environmental and economic benefits. Concrete that might otherwise be discarded can instead be placed offshore to create structure for fish and other marine species, while also lowering disposal costs compared with traditional demolition methods.

The Virginia Marine Resources Commission’s artificial reef program dates back to the 1960s and 1970s, when decommissioned World War II-era Liberty ships were first used to establish reef sites. Today, the agency manages 23 artificial reefs in the Chesapeake Bay and along Virginia’s Atlantic coast.

Those reef sites have become popular fishing destinations, attracting species such as black sea bass, flounder, red drum and tautog. Recreational anglers can use online maps and the VMRC Maps app to locate reef sites.

So far, the HRBT contractor has delivered 951 tons of concrete rubble to Bluefish Rock Reef, located about four miles east of Buckroe Beach in Hampton. Officials say demolition activity has been limited to this point, but the pace is expected to increase significantly over the next year as traffic is shifted fully onto the new bridge structures.

The process is a heavy-lift operation. Demolished material is loaded onto barges and carried offshore, where a crane lowers the concrete to the bay floor using a block-and-pulley system. Individual pieces can weigh as much as 50,000 pounds. Most of Virginia’s artificial reefs cover about a half-mile in diameter.

Once in place, the concrete is expected to remain stable on the bay bottom for decades, providing long-term habitat for fish and expanding one of the state’s most established marine conservation and recreation programs.

For a project built to move drivers faster through one of the region’s worst chokepoints, officials say the reuse effort is also creating something lasting below the surface — turning old roadway infrastructure into new life for the Bay.

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