Environmental Services for Parallel Thimble Shoal Tunnel Design-Build & Parallel Chesapeake Tunnel

Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel District, Virginia
Owner:  Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel Commission

WSSI has provided a range of environmental services to support the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel (CBBT).

Parallel Chesapeake Tunnel (PCT) – NEPA Documentation

WSSI has completed the draft Natural Resources Technical Reports for inclusion in the NEPA Categorical Exclusion documentation for the PCT project.  WSSI provided preliminary effects determinations for threatened and endangered whale, turtle, and seal species pursuant to the Endangered Species Act (ESA); Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) pursuant to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act; and marine mammals pursuant to the Marine Mammals Protection Act; WSSI also evaluated potential acoustic impacts to protected species from tunnel boring, dredging and pile driving. WSSI assisted with scoping activities with applicable regulatory agencies and provided input for the NEPA Categorical Exclusion form.

Parallel Thimble Shoal Tunnel (PTST) – Multiple Environmental Services

NEPA Documentation

WSSI prepared the Natural Resources Technical Reports to support the Environmental Assessment documentation needed to satisfy NEPA requirements for the PTST.

Regulatory Consultation

WSSI provided permitting services and mitigation assessment services to Chesapeake Tunnel Joint Venture (CTJV) and the Engineer of Record on the $750 million PTST project.

The first task involved providing the joint venture team with a Quality Review of the environmental approach and permitting schedule as proposed in the Design-Builder’s draft deliverables to the CBBT.  WSSI’s proposed revisions were ultimately used in the CTJV’s competitive final submittal; after that submission the CBBT District awarded the project to CTJV.

WSSI also provided information for the Compensatory Mitigation Plan and was involved in reviewing and providing regulatory strategies for the Joint Permit Application to address proposed impacts to jurisdictional waters, the Dredged Material Management Plan (DMMP), and the Habitat Condition Assessment for evaluation of effects on subaqueous and intertidal habitats.

In the course of that work, WSSI provided a number of services regarding the planning, preliminary design and final regulatory approvals for disposal of over 750,000 cubic yards of materials including tunnel-bored materials with additives related to soil stabilization and slurry wall construction.  WSSI began by conducting regulatory due diligence on a number of potential sites for material disposal. WSSI then provided preliminary engineering, regulatory constraints analyses and scheduling studies on short-listed sites.  Additional site-specific services included surveying, engineering (for approval from the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals, and Energy), wetland delineations, coordination with regulatory agencies, and writing summaries for use in the DMMP.

In the last stages of the DMMP and materials disposal planning, WSSI has worked with the CTJV to gain approvals necessary to utilize the Little Creek CBBT storage facility.  Tasks have included wetland delineation and survey-location, erosion and sediment control plans, and amending the project’s CGP.  On-island construction began in August of 2017, with Individual Permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality secured over the winter of 2018/2019.  The project is scheduled to begin tunnel boring in 2021.

Stormwater Management Planning

Subsequently, the Engineer of Record retained WSSI as the sole local environmental consultant providing input to the Environmental Manager, Project Engineer, the environmental team, and the CTJV.  In this role, WSSI staff prepared an expedited Combined Erosion Control and Stormwater Management Plan for all Construction at Islands 1 and 2 and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) approved the plans without revision.  WSSI also secured the Construction General Stormwater Permit (CGP) for the project, which has been modified as the project progressed. 

(The CJTV contracted services with Kerr Environmental Services, whom WSSI acquired in 2018)