The Elizabeth River Tunnel District constructed both the original Midtown and Downtown Tunnels as the first two river crossings connecting Portsmouth and Norfolk. The Downtown Tunnel opened to service in the early 1950s and the two-lane Midtown tunnel followed in 1962. Both tunnels were financed with bonds backed by toll proceeds, with motorists paying 25 cents to use the crossings. Tolls continued to be charged until the late 1980s when the bonds were paid off.
As the tolls were removed from the crossings, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) began to formulate plans to expand the Midtown Tunnel. To do so, it began a Federal environmental approval process to establish the goals of the project and assess the ability of different solutions to meet those goals. This analysis led to the recommendation to upgrade Route 58 into a limited access highway and add a second tunnel to expand east-west connections between Portsmouth and Norfolk.
VDOT completed its environmental review process in 1996, but still needed Federal approval in order to proceed with the project. However, at that time funding had only been identified for the interchange with the MLK Expressway and the western tunnel approach. These portions of the project were included in the financially constrained, 20-year, long-range transportation plan maintained by the region's Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization. As a result, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) issued a Record of Decision approving these portions of the project in 1997, but it withheld its approval of the tunnel itself and eastern approach because these components of the project were not included in the fiscally constrained long-range transportation plan.
During the same period, VDOT also initiated a series of studies to analyze alternatives for closing a gap nearly one mile long between the southern terminus of the MLK Expressway at London Boulevard and I-264 in Portsmouth. This process led to the selection of a four-lane limited access freeway to replace the existing Harbor Drive and connect the MLK Expressway to I-264. VDOT concluded its environmental review process for the MLK Extension in 1999, but funding was not available for the project. As a result, it was not included in the region's fiscally constrained long-range plan and FHWA approval was delayed.