A decision on the alternative with the least environmental impact — a requirement for a permit to be issued — is expected by the end of the year.

“I am comfortable that a permit will be given — I just can’t tell you what the permit will be for, or what alignment it will be for,” Layne told lawmakers.

Wednesday’s presentation portrayed the project as relentlessly pushed by then-Gov. Bob McDonnell’s administration, even when the administration knew the state would have to provide virtually all of the financing and assume virtually all of the risk if it failed to secure the permits required for construction.

That pressure was most pronounced, Layne said, in the time leading up to the signing of the contract in December 2012.

“Extraordinary efforts were used,” said Layne, a former member of the Commonwealth Transportation Board, referring to the McDonnell administration’s push to get a deal signed by the end of 2012, weeks before the Virginia General Assembly was to convene.

“They wanted it done before we got in town,” suggested Del. S. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, the Appropriations Committee chairman. “No one seemed to apply the brakes at all.”