Port Corpus Christi has taken the first step toward a $350 million project to widen the Texas port’s channel and increase its 45-foot depth to 52 feet.
Port commissioners approved a memorandum of understanding with the US Army Corps of Engineers that allows the port to proceed with $1.8 million in contracts for sediment testing at the entrance to the port’s channel. The contracts will be credited toward the port’s share of the expansion project’s cost.
Congress authorized the Corpus Christi channel expansion in 2007 and 2014 but has not appropriated funds for the work. The project is not on the Corps’ list of projects for funding this year.
Officials at Corpus Christi, which specializes in bulk and project shipments of petrochemical and wind-energy cargoes, are seeking the larger channel in order to help the port handle larger ships, including those moving through the Panama Canal’s new, larger locks, which can now handle vessels three times the size of those able to pass through the old locks.
The Corps said starting the sediment sampling and testing now will allow work on the deepening project to begin 10 months earlier, once funding is approved. The federal government provides matching funds only after the first local money is spent.
Port officials say the channel expansion, which includes widening the channel to 530 feet and dredging of “shelves” for barges, could begin next year if Congress authorizes funding.
New York-New Jersey recently wrapped up work to bring its channel to 50 feet, joining Baltimore, Virginia, and Miami as the deepest ports on the US East Coast. Charleston will try to wrest that title from them with plans to go to 52 feet. The port of Savannah is deepening its harbor to 47 feet and expects to complete the project in 2018.
