PORTS OF LONG BEACH / LOS ANGELES: BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE A $365-million terminal expansion project is underway at the Port of Long Beach to create more stacking space and maximize ef ciency. The project is slated for completion in late 2028. International Transportation Service, operator of the port’s Pier G terminal, will also build a single 3,400-foot wharf capable of hosting two of the largest cargo ships at once. “This project strengthens America’s supply chain by investing the right way in infrastructure—using local labor and U.S.-made materials,” said ITS Long Beach CEO Kim Holtermand in a press release. “We’re not just preparing for the future—we’re building it here, at home.” In addition, a major rail expansion at Pier B will grow the yard from 82 to 171 acres, triple on-dock rail cargo volume, and include a depot servicing up to 30 locomotives simultaneously. Construction began in 2024 and is expected to nish in 2032, connecting
and received an increased funding authorization in 2022, but it remains in the environmental review process. PORT OF HOUSTON: IMPROVING EFFICIENCY At the Port of Houston, dredging began in 2022 on its ship channel expansion, which is called Project 11 and will widen the channel from 530 feet to 700 feet and deepen some upstream segments of the channel to 46.5 feet. The work is expected to be nished in 2029. The Port of Houston has more deep- draft ship visits than any other port in the country, and nearly 200,000 barge transits every year. The port also is No. 1 in the country for waterborne tonnage. According to the port, several portions of the channel expansion project are complete and already providing bene ts: For instance, daylight restrictions have been reduced by up to two hours in each direction, increasing time for two- way vessel traf c along the waterway and improving ef ciency.
that increased the depth of the port’s shipping channel from 47 feet to 54 feet and its width from 400 feet to 530 feet with additional barge shelves. The $625-million project began in 2017 and will allow the port to accommodate the widespread demand for larger vessels. It also makes it the deepest draft port in the Gulf of Mexico. “I think this deeper depth will open up a whole new era of innovation and commercialization of this ship channel,” said Kent Britton, CEO of Port of Corpus Christi, in local news reports. “We’ll be able to receive deeper ships than we would have been able to previously, and so we’ll be looking at larger crude carriers as well as potentially container ships.” The Port of Corpus Christi is the largest crude oil export gateway in the U.S. and the third-largest in the world, and it also is the second-largest U.S. gateway for lique ed natural gas exports. The port estimates annual transportation cost savings of $200 million from the project. According to the port, the enhanced navigational infrastructure project and the port’s proximity to two major production elds—Eagle Ford Shale and the Permian Basin— has attracted more than $65 billion in commercial investments to the Texas Coastal Bend region in the past decade. PORT EVERGLADES: WELCOMING LARGER SHIPS Port Everglades is another port pursuing a project to deepen and widen its navigational channels to meet the requirements of larger ships. The project will upgrade the port’s outer entrance channel from 45 feet deep and 500 feet wide to 55 feet deep and 800 feet wide for a ared channel that extends 2,200 feet seaward. In addition, the inner entrance channel and main turning basins will be deepened from 42 feet to 48 feet. According to the port, the project can be traced all the way back to a feasibility study completed in 1996. The project was authorized for construction in 2016
E orts at the Port of Long Beach include a project to double its existing rail yard to 171 acres, more than tripling the volume of on-dock rail cargo that the port can handle annually.
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