While sitting in traffic or driving by the southern end of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, there’s a good chance you’ve seen a swarm of birds.
During the peak spring and summer seasons, it’s easy to spot — and hear — thousands of avians such as terns, gulls and pelicans encircling land and barges just east of the bridge span.
For three decades, up to 25,000 seabirds migrated to the HRBT’s South Island each year, becoming one of the most important nesting sites in Virginia.
But recent construction from the bridge expansion displaced the seabird colony, leaving state officials scrambling to figure out how to preserve the area’s key habitat.
The temporary solution was to lure the birds to adjoining Fort Wool, where they’ve stayed for the past several years.
Plans are finally taking shape to build the seabirds a permanent home.
The federal Army Corps of Engineers is finalizing its proposal for a $15.9 million project to build an island closer to the city of Hampton.
State leaders are also thinking about how to restore Historic Fort Wool after the birds leave.
Constructing a brand new island
The saga of the seabirds is tied to a technical twist of fate.
The Virginia Department of Transportation would traditionally be required to mitigate its project’s impacts on the bird colony under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
But in 2017, the first Trump administration issued a legal opinion limiting the rules to only intentional, not incidental, killing of birds. That opinion was later invalidated in court, but applied at the time of regulatory decision-making for the bridge-tunnel project.
As a result, VDOT did not have to pay for impacts to the seabirds. (The Trump administration this spring reinstated its legal opinion that rolls back the regulations.)
After outcry from environmentalists and residents, then-Gov. Ralph Northam stepped in, prompting the plan to temporarily relocate the habitat to Fort Wool, also known as Rip Raps Island. It’s connected to the South Island by a narrow rock jetty.
But it has a much smaller footprint and was never meant to be a long-term solution, said Becky Gwynn, executive deputy director of the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources.
The HRBT site is a key breeding ground for six species that are a high conservation priority to the state, she said. Some, such as royal and sandwich terns, nest almost nowhere else in Virginia.
The birds have had relative success on Fort Wool, but need more space and to escape the busy transportation and construction activity, Gwynn said.
“The longer we have to curate this colony at its current location, the greater our risks become of something significant impacting” the birds, she said. “I'm anxious to get the permanent location.”
That permanent location doesn’t exist – yet. The Army Corps spent the past couple of years drawing up plans to build a new island for the birds.
Project manager Kim Koelsch said they evaluated several locations before settling on a site along the Hampton Bar, about a mile south of downtown Hampton on the west side of the bridge.
The 9.7-acre island will look like a “filled-in horseshoe,” armored with rip rap on the outside and an open expanse of sand inside.
Officials plan to build it out of material dredged nearby as part of the Norfolk Harbor deepening project.
From shore, it’ll likely look like a small bump on the horizon, Koelsch said.
“The seabird colony really wants flat, like the Eastern Shore, right on the water,” she said. “A very flat, open area where they can see far and go foraging and then come back. So we're going to maintain it that way.”
The federal government will pay 65% of the cost, leaving Virginia on the hook for about $5 million, most of which was set aside under Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s most recent budget.
The state currently pays $2.6 million per year for barges set up next to Fort Wool to extend the temporary habitat.
The Corps released a draft project report and environmental assessment late last year and is working on a final version, Koelsch said. The agency will then move into detailed design and hopes to start construction in 2027.
To draw the birds from South Island to Fort Wool, officials successfully used methods such as decoys and speakers blaring bird sounds. Gwynn said they’ll likely turn to those strategies again, but on a larger scale.
The state is also working to set up ways to protect the island from intruders once it’s up and running, such as no-boat zones and regulations on trespassing by residents.
What’s next for Fort Wool?
Meanwhile, local historians and citizens have been calling on leaders to preserve and reopen Fort Wool, which is a state and national historic landmark.
Originally named Fort Calhoun, it was built in 1819 as a companion to Fort Monroe to help the U.S. resist aggression from Europe.
“It’s hard for us to understand how vulnerable our cities were to attack by sea, but during the War of 1812, the Brits attacked towns up and down the seaboard,” said Mike Cobb, former longtime curator of the Hampton History Museum. “So the idea was to build this massive fortification at Old Point Comfort.”
For years, starting in the 1980s, Cobb ran boat tours of Fort Wool, often taking out hundreds of people per day, including World War II veterans.
“People come there and they share their stories, and then they learn about what happened on this small island,” he said.
He told visitors about how the fort participated in the Battle of Ironclads, held Civil War prisoners and served as a summer retreat favored by President Andrew Jackson.
“It’s really a panorama and a canvas of Hampton Roads history,” he said. “When you stand there, you’re in the center of Hampton Roads.”
Cobb is part of the Coalition for Historic Fort Wool, which formed in response to the seabird relocation. The group works with local, state and federal officials to try to ensure the fort’s future.
Even before the bird takeover, Fort Wool was in serious need of restoration. The 19th-century casemates, which fired guns supporting the federal fleet during the Civil War, need to be shored up, among other aging structures, Cobb said.
Last year, the city of Hampton funded a survey of the fort’s condition. The engineering firm estimated it would cost almost $7 million to do the needed improvements and repairs, nearly half of which would be to replace an existing wooden pier with a more durable one made of concrete.
About $611,000 would go toward generally cleaning up after seabird use.
“The buildup of bird guano will have an adverse effect on steel, concrete and masonry construction due to its acidity,” the report said. “Bird guano is nearly omnipresent on Fort Wool.”
It’s unclear who will pay for all or part of the repairs, and when.
The fort is owned by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. Deputy director Frank Stovall said in an email that they are working with colleagues at the state’s Department of Historic Resources to determine appropriate steps.
“Should Fort Wool be reopened for public tours and access, several safety improvements would need to be completed in advance,” Stovall said. “Chief among these is the replacement of the existing dock to ensure safe and reliable access for visitors.”
Hampton City Council has designated restoring the fort as a legislative priority. The city previously leased the site from the state.
“We have taken the position that if the state makes repairs needed to make the island safe for visitors, we would operate it like we did in the past,” city spokesperson Mike Holtzclaw said in an email this week.
Cobb said there’s no time to waste.
“If we don't do something now, it will deteriorate beyond repair,” he said. “But we're not there yet. It can still be turned around.”
