Speakers at the panel included Morgan’s Point Mayor Michel Bechtel; James Koch, Texas Department of Transportation director of transportation planning; Bryon Williams, deputy district engineer with the Army Corps of Engineers; and Charlie Jenkins, Port Houston senior director of asset management.
The Gulf Coast Protection District was created in the 2021 Texas legislative session as the nonfederal sponsor of the Sabine Pass to Galveston Bay Coastal Storm Risk Management and Coastal Texas Protection and Restoration Feasibility studies, known collectively as the Coastal Barrier.
Bechtel, the GCPD president, said the district is made up of five counties: Harris, Chambers, Galveston, Orange and Jefferson. He said as a nonfederal sponsor of the Coastal Barrier project, the GCPD will be responsible for 35% of the costs in the design and construction phases and entirely responsible for the operation of the project.
“That's what our role is: We provide the funding, which in this case is pretty substantial. On today's numbers, it's going to be north of $10 billion for the entire project, and we got to be creative,” Bechtel said.
Another major project happening in Houston’s Bay Area is Project 11, the widening and deepening of the Galveston Bay ship channel, known as Project 11 due to this being the 11th major project in improving the channel. Jenkins said the channel will be widened by 170 feet from 530 to 700 feet.
“We're doing it to stay where we are in Houston, in very rapid growth and on top of the marketplace,” Jenkins said. “We are the largest port in the country, not just by a little bit, by a lot. We're 15 million metric tons bigger than No. 2 in the United States, and that gap is bigger than 92% of all U.S. ports.”
Jenkins said if the project is funded by Congress that it would have a “very bright future” and could be completed by 2025 or in 10 years time. Bechtel said the developments happening in the port are “enormous,” saying billions of dollars need to be invested to get the project moving forward in a timely manner.
“We got a long way to go, but we try to move as fast as we can,” he said.
