In June 2004, the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission wanted to add the parallel Midtown Tunnel and the extension of the Martin Luther King Freeway (along with several other congestion-relieving projects) to the 2026 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP).
In 2006, the Hampton Roads Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) (formerly a subcommittee of the HRPDC, now known as the Transportation Planning Organization) concluded that new tolls could help secure funding for transportation projects that were removed from the 2026 RTP, including the Midtown Tunnel and MLK Extension.