new toll bridge

The City of Chesapeake is launching another toll-financed highway upgrade - construction of a 4-lane high level bridge in place of a 2-lane low level lift-span for the US17/Dominion Boulevard at the Southern Branch of the estuarial Elizabeth River in Chesapeake VA. This is on the southwest fringe of the greater Norfolk/Hampton Roads metro area.

A bridge-builder and private investors are promising to do what City officials in Chesapeake Virginia thought was impossible - replace a decrepit 80 year old draw bridge with a modern high level structure at no cost to taxpayers. And they say they can get the new bridge open within 18 months.

Nothing stimulates local self-help like a "No, sorry, we can't help" from on high. After Florida's Turnpike Enterprise (FTE) recently told Manatee County on the west coast that it can't build the Fort Hamer Bridge the county commissioners only took days to decide to go it alone. A decade of lobbying for FDOT and the feds to fund a bridge had gone nowhere. The state Turnpike was the last hope of help from higher levels of government.