Fort Bend officials studying future Gulf Coast distribution system

“[The rail line] would have a significant impact on the region,” Meyers said. “You would have the opportunity to manufacture goods for import or export in the Rosenberg and Needville area along the rail line and the Hwy. 36 corridor.”

Fort Bend County officials established the Brazoria Fort Bend Rail District and began a study earlier this year to examine the possibility of constructing a rail line from the Port Freeport to Rosenberg. Meyers said the study’s results will be complete in October and will help county officials determine potential costs and construction timelines of the proposed rail line.

“The widening of the Panama Canal provides a unique opportunity that we’re not prepared to take advantage of at this point,” Meyers said. “[The county] needs a system to put things in motion, and hopefully we can get them moving forward starting with the engineering study process, environmental study process and looking for funding.”

With larger ships traveling to the Port Freeport from the Panama Canal, officials with Fort Bend and Brazoria counties are also studying the possibility of expanding the Hwy. 36 corridor in Fort Bend County and into Waller County. Meyers said expanding Hwy. 36 would accommodate an increase of imports and exports traveling to and from the Gulf Coast.

“It would divert a lot of potential traffic from going through the middle of Houston,” he said. “It would provide a hurricane evacuation route for the people who live on the Gulf Coast, and it provides a distribution system, both railroad and truck, for any expansion out of the Port [Freeport].”

A TxDOT report found the canal expansion will give Houston businesses—particularly in natural gas, coal and agriculture—the ability to export more goods through the port.

Throughout the expansion process officials have been hesitant to speculate on the full effect it would have on the Houston economy. However, a 2015 report by logistics company C.H. Robinson Worldwide suggests more ship traffic may shift from West Coast ports to Gulf and East Coast ports than originally thought.

Up to 10 percent of cargo from Asia going to major West Coast ports at Los Angeles, Oakland and Seattle is expected to shift to Gulf Coast and East Coast ports by 2020, the report found.

“[For some] products, the savings of shipping through the Panama Canal will likely outweigh the extra time in transit,” said Sri Laxmana, C.H. Robinson’s director of ocean services.

Meyers said a distribution system running through Fort Bend County and the surrounding region would assist Port Freeport attract more commerce to the Gulf Coast.

“We see a tremendous opportunity here to take advantage of the improvements to the Panama Canal and to bring commerce to the Gulf ports, rather than the East Coast or the West Coast ports,” he said.