Port Of Port Arthur’s BUILD Grant To Help Build Wharf

Infrastructure projects in the state of Texas garnered five of the recently-announced awards from the Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) transportation grant program, the successor to the Obama-era TIGER grant program. One of the port projects in line to receive a BUILD grant this year was the Port of Port Arthur’s Berth 6 expansion project.

The port earlier this year began work on its 600-foot-long Berth 5 wharf. The DOT BUILD grant will supply $20 million of the estimated $55 million needed to extend the port’s berthing space another 1,000 linear feet. Berth 6 will feature a crane-capable, pile-supported 1,000-  by 62-foot wharf and a 1,000- by 100-foot upland slab, suitable for a cargo-handling laydown area.

The Berth 6 project also includes a multimodal component by expanding an existing rail system to allow for direct connection between the rail spur and dock tracks at Berth 5 and the forthcoming Berth 6.

The project will nearly double the Port of Port Arthur’s ability to handle liquid cargoes for export, along with bulk energy cargoes like wood chips and wood pellets. By emphasizing rail and waterborne transportation, the port hopes the project will have an added benefit of reducing truck traffic on area highways.

The Port of Port Arthur project was one of two Gulf Coast port projects to garner a 2018 BUILD grant. The other was Port Fourchon in South Louisiana.

According to DOT, the maximum grant award this year was $25 million for a single project, with no more than $150 million awarded to a single state.