Port Road Construction And Bayport Terminal

The main entrance for Bayport Container Terminal lies off Port Road. One project we’re working on is expanding Port Road from 4 to 6 lanes between Highway 146 and the Bayport Container Terminal bridge. In addition to the road expansion, it will also improve necessary drainage facilities for Port Road along with drainage for the 95-acre tract of Port Houston-owned property.

The Port was awarded $9.675 million in grant funding through the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Texas Mobility Fund. This specific fund from TxDOT provides a method of financing for the construction, reconstruction, acquisition and expansion of Texas state highways and roads. The funds help pay for a portion of the larger project which will cost close to $18.9 million in total.

The first phase of the Bayport Container Terminal opened in 2007 and is now about 50% complete. When fully developed, it will have a total of 7 container berths with the capacity to handle 2.3 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). The terminal will include 376 acres of container yard and a 123-acre intermodal facility. Adding an inbound and outbound lane to Port Road will make a tremendous difference in freight efficiency.

Barbours Cut Blvd Construction and BCT Terminal

Port Houston handles roughly 70 percent of the containers that move through the Gulf of Mexico and is the 6^th largest container port in the nation. Barbours Cut was our original container terminal which opened in 1977 and has seen some big improvements over the years as well.

Barbours Cut Terminal’s most recent project involves intersection improvements at Barbours Cut Blvd and SH-146. This is the main intersection in front of the terminal which sees a lot of transportation traffic each day. With this enhancement there will be 2 additional northbound right-turn lanes from Barbours Cut Blvd onto SH-146. Additionally, traffic signals will be improved to facilitate freight fluidity and air quality.

This is a minor project completely funded and reconstructed by the TxDOT approximately costing $500,000 dollars. It started in July 2020 and is projected to be finished later this month or early next month.

Barbours Cut features 6 container berths, 6,000 feet of continuous dock space, 230 acres of paved marshaling area, and 255,000 square feet of warehouse space. Additionally, there’s a roll-on/roll-off platform, a LASH dock, and an Intermodal rail service with dock-to-rail connection servicing. Today the terminal is undergoing a modernization program to increase cargo handling efficiency and capacity from 1.2 million TEUs to 2 million TEUs when completed.

The amount of cargo coming through Port Houston’s container terminals has continued to increase steadily over the years, and there are no signs of slowing down.

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Caption: Peninsula Road

The $12.7 million Peninsula Road construction project near Port Houston's Jacintoport and CARE Terminals has been completed. The two-way road was widened to accommodate three lanes inbound and one lane outbound and will greatly improve traffic flow and safety. The project was completed by Harris Co. Precinct 2 in partnership with the Texas Department of Transportation and Port Houston. The improvement, which took nearly 18 months to complete, is expected to bring $123 million in benefits to the Houston region over 10 years.

The area was one of the most congested roads in the port region and resulted in a number of accidents. In addition to improving the congestion and safety of this area, the project benefits include decreasing supply chain costs. Rail crossing safety has also been improved, with train signals added at six locations and crossing arms at five of those locations. The rail crossings are operated by Port Terminal Railroad Association and Union Pacific.

Port Houston contributed $800,000 to the project. The Port also facilitated Harris County’s participation in the Texas Legislature’s Rider 48 Grant Program and the project was awarded up to $10.2 million.

“Port Houston is proud to have worked on sourcing project funding on behalf of our industrial and governmental stakeholders on this project and appreciates their involvement in making this happen,” said Bruce Mann, freight mobility director for Port Houston. “It has been great to be part of this project from the beginning, and to now see the de-bottlenecking that has occurred and the significant improvements to safety for both the railroad and roadway users.”

“This project will make a big difference in our county’s infrastructure,” said Adrian Garcia, commissioner for Harris County Precinct 2. “This road has been overdue for an upgrade to handle heavy truck use for many years, and I am very pleased that it’s now complete. I want to thank our partners at Port Houston and TXDOT for their hard work in upgrading this roadway.”

The post Peninsula Road Project Completed: Port Partnership Makes Moving Freight Safer appeared first on Port Houston.

Caption: Union Pacific Railcar (Photo credit: PTRA)

The Broadway Double Track Project near Manchester Street at the Port of Houston is now complete. The project was administered by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT).

Three Class I railroads – Union Pacific, BNSF Railway and Kansas City Southern Railroad — worked in collaboration with the port and provided half of the project funding. The Houston-Galveston Area Council provided the remaining federal funding. The Port Terminal Railroad Association (PTRA), Union Pacific and BNSF Railway all have rights to operate over tracks on port property.

The estimated $23 million project will generate $63 million in benefits and completes double tracking on the PTRA railroad on the south side of the ship channel. The project will remove train delays of two to four hours a day and alleviate one of the largest rail bottleneck points on the PTRA railroad.

The rail system includes a rail bridge over Broadway Street that provides rail switching services to shippers along the Houston Ship Channel. The construction improvements were made without impact to train operations. In coordination with Harris County, TxDOT and Port Houston, PTRA also is making improvements to rail crossings on Peninsula Road and Jacintoport Boulevard as part of the Peninsula Road Improvement Project.

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