Houston Ship Channel in need of dredging after Hurricane Harvey

The primary vessel conduit at the Port of Houston must be dredged just so it can handle normal commerce at its authorized depth and width due to flood water from Hurricane Harvey resulting in shoaling, according to port commission Chair Janiece Longoria.    Port of Houston Authority port commission Chair Janiece Longoria on Tuesday stressed the importance of restoring and improving the Houston Ship Channel after floodwater from Hurricane Harvey deposited a large amount of silt into the channel and Galveston Bay.
   To address the issue, the port commission authorized an additional payment not to exceed $2 million to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
   The Houston Ship Channel is open and commerce is flowing with some restrictions, Longoria said.
   However, she said the channel needs to be dredged, just so it can handle normal commerce at its authorized depth and width. The port authority also said there is dramatic shoaling at the entrance of the port’s three major terminals.
   “We must also look at improvements to this waterway that make it more resilient and reduce the impacts of future weather events,” Longoria said. “We believe that rather than just returning the channel to its pre-storm depth and width, we must enhance its efficiency and we must build in resiliency, to make it better for ever- growing demand.”
   Each year, over 241 million tons of cargo move through the greater Port of Houston, transported by more than 8,200 vessels and 223,000 barges, according to the port authority.
   Ocean carrier schedule and capacity database BlueWater Reporting’s Port Dashboard tool shows the port is called by 44 liner services: 18 deploying multi-purpose vessels, 17 deploying fully cellular containerships, six deploying either roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) vessels or pure car/truck carriers (PCTC), two deploying open hatch vessels, and one deploying container/ro-ro (con-ro) vessels.