A journey through the HRBT

HAMPTON, Va. - Despite radio warnings, WAVY News 10 set out on our journey, slowly.

At 7:40 p.m., we were 8 miles out from the HRBT. It was stop and go.

As we pulled alongside another vehicle, the driver shouted, "8 more miles before we get to the tunnel, oh wow."

Another couple said, "It's terrible, the worst we've seen."

At 7:55 p.m., 15 minutes after we started, we had only traveled a quarter of a mile. We were shocked to learn that 20 minutes before we started taping, crews had opened both lanes. We couldn't tell from where we were.

Some drivers we passed had suggestions. One yelled, "Maybe another route that would take you through other than the bridge tunnel."

Another sighed, "I live in Baltimore, I work in Virginia Beach Sunday through Thursday and I thought I'll get home for the 4th. So I was going to leave at 10:30 this morning and here I sit."

At 8:10 p.m., we were finally moving; driving about 25 to 30 miles an hour. It was the quickest we'd been going since we got started.

Not the same for everyone else; we passed a couple of broken down vehicles along the way.

Finally, at 8:20 p.m., a sign, literally. It said tunnel, 3 miles. That meant it had taken us 40 minutes to drive 5 miles.

We were cruising now. As we headed over the bridge, we managed to get up to 40 miles an hour.

Then at 8:30 p.m., disappointment. We finally reached the tunnel, but the light was red. We were relieved as crews waved us through anyhow. We hoped to make it to the other side.

Inside the tunnel, surprisingly, we didn't see any signs of water damage.

Then, at 8:30 p.m., we reached our destination, the other side of the tunnel. We started 8 miles back at 7:40, so it basically took us almost an hour.