This chapter applies to all state owned bridge-tunnel facilities in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and establishes the rules by which all interstate, intrastate, and public and private transporters of hazardous materials are governed while traveling through these certain bridge-tunnel facilities.

The following table lists the six state-owned bridge-tunnel facilities in the Commonwealth. The Virginia Department of Transportation owns and operates all six facilities listed to which this chapter applies. A list of telephone numbers for each facility is available at the following website: https://www.vdot.virginia.gov/travel-traffic/freight/hazmat/.

For purposes of this chapter, the facilities listed above are classified into two groups: rural and essentially distanced from bodies of water, and urban and essentially proximate to bodies of water, as listed in the table.

The two rural and distanced-from-water tunnel facilities are: the Big Walker Mountain Tunnel and the East River Mountain Tunnel. For these the two rural tunnels, and these two only, no restrictions apply on the transport of hazardous materials, so long as transporters and shippers are in compliance with 49 CFR 100 through 180, and any present and future applicable state regulations which may become in force to implement the federal regulations. In addition, the Commissioner of Highways may, at any time, impose emergency or temporary restrictions on the transport of hazardous materials through these facilities, so long as sufficient advanced signage is positioned to allow for a reasonable detour.

Questions on this section of the regulation should be directed to the VDOT Office of Safety, Security and Emergency Management, which can be reached by calling VDOT at 804-786-4692. Copies of the regulation will be provided free of charge. For copies, please write to:

Virginia Department of Transportation

ATTN: Office of Safety, Security and Emergency Management

1221 East Broad Street

Richmond, Virginia 23219

Hazardous materials are regulated in the four urban and water-proximate tunnels (Elizabeth River (Midtown and Downtown), Hampton Roads, and Monitor-Merrimac) based exclusively on the "hazard class" of the material being conveyed. The following tables list those categories of materials grouped under the designations "Prohibited," "No Restrictions," or "Restricted."

Regulations concerning the transportation of hazardous materials across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (CBBT) are available from the CBBT website: https://www.cbbt.com/regulations/#hazmat.