Westbound side of Hampton Roads tunnel reopens

Standing water inside the westbound side of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel prompted the Virginia Department of Transportation to partially close the tunnel for most of the day yesterday, sending drivers scrambling and clogging alternate routes.

And closer to Richmond, a multivehicle wreck temporarily shut down all southbound lanes of Interstate 95 near state Route 288 in Chesterfield County.

A tractor-trailer struck an I-95 concrete median, damaging it at about 2 p.m., VDOT reports. No one was injured, state police said, but traffic was backed up at least 12 miles at one point.

Crews made temporary repairs to the median damaged in the wreck.

VDOT announced at 5 p.m. that all southbound lanes had reopened.

It was a rough start to a high-volume traffic weekend.

VDOT officials said it is lucky the flooding was in the westbound side of the Hampton Roads tunnel, as many Virginians are heading east for the beach for the Fourth of July.

"Fortunately, this didn't happen on I-64 eastbound or else we would be having a very different conversation," VDOT spokeswoman Lauren Hansen said.

Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim said the problem was a direct result of legislative inaction on transportation funding. "Had this occurred during an evacuation caused by an impending hurricane or major storm, I shudder to think of the consequences," he said.

VDOT crews worked inside the westbound tunnel to assess and repair damage to the main water pump. At the start of the morning rush hour, drivers headed west were slogging through about 4 inches of water, believed to have come from the housing of the main pump inside the tunnel, Hansen said. The problem was believed to have been caused by the power outage during severe storms Wednesday night.

Crews closed the westbound lanes of the tunnel about 6:30 a.m. to pump out the water and found the problem with the pump, Hansen said. One westbound lane was reopened by midafternoon, but the speed limit was lowered to 25 mph.

"The tunnel is not leaking," Hansen said in a statement yesterday morning.

Drivers headed to the Peninsula were rerouted to Interstate 664 and the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel. The eastbound side of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, which had to be partly shut down to reroute westbound traffic, was backed up for miles earlier yesterday.

Officials said last night that both westbound lanes of I-64 at the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel were open, but westbound traffic remained backed up about 9 miles into the evening.

Crews planned to continue draining the water main system, and one westbound lane was to be closed last night from 9 until 9 this morning, as well as during the same hours starting tonight.

High winds from the storms Wednesday blew power lines down near the James River Bridge, which connects Newport News to Isle of Wight County, forcing the Coast Guard to halt water traffic within a half-mile of the bridge.

Virginia Marine Resources Commission spokesman John Bull said the river will remain closed to traffic until the lines are removed. Bull said yesterday that it's unclear when the river will reopen.

Dominion Virginia Power spokesman Ken Holt said the downed lines have been secured.

Staff writer Reed Williams contributed to this report.