As part of a larger legislative package passed by Congress in December, the project was approved in the Water Resources and Development Act of 2020.
The widening of the Houston Ship Channel will expand and deepen the channel for safer and more efficient navigation of vessels calling the eight public terminals of the port and more than 200 private facilities operating along the channel.
The port, bipartisan Congressional delegation and channel stakeholders have worked together for the past seven years to make this channel enhancement project a reality, including writing letters and making calls to Washington's powerful federal decision-makers.
In terms of overall waterborne tonnage, the Houston Ship Channel port complex and its public and private terminals, collectively known as the Port of Houston, is currently the number one port in the U.S. It is also ranked first for overseas waterborne tonnage and number of vessel transits. In 2019, nearly 285 million tons of cargo went through the Port of Houston in total.
Maritime Business World