Port Freeport, Tx. has completed a three-year, $146 million project to expand Berth 8 at its Velasco Terminal cargo facility – to date, the single largest project overseen by a public port on the Texas Gulf Coast.
The project included demolition of an existing concrete relieving platform, dry excavation, a combi-wall bulkhead installation, and construction of the new wharf which included wharf piling, a midline/shoreline protection system, and a mooring and breasting system.
Work on the three-year Berth 8 project was completed by McCarthy Building Companies, Inc., which installed more than 1,400 steel piles without disrupting access to the adjacent Berth 7 and built an 85-foot roll-on/roll-off cargo structure which allows for vehicles and large equipment to unload and load from a vessel to the wharf.
The expansion added 1,600 feet of new berth space to the Velasco Terminal, as well as a pair of post-Panamax gantry cranes that brings to four the number of cranes at the facility. The Terminal is now capable of handling upwards of 2 million TEUs annually, according to port officials.
“McCarthy has extensive experience in building and rehabilitating port and marine projects on the Texas coast, and this project once again allowed our team to showcase our expertise,” said Fitz O’Donnell, senior vice president of operations for Los Angeles-headquartered McCarthy. “We were honored to work with Port Freeport on such an important project as they work to support commerce in the region.”
The completed Berth 8 project was part of an ambitious plan by Port Freeport, about 60 miles south of Houston, to position itself as competitive magnet for cargo moving in and out of the Gulf via the Panama Canal.
The plan’s next phase involves dredging Port Freeport’s main channel to authorized depths of 51 to 56 feet, which will make the port the deepest in Texas. This channel is 7.5 miles in length and is currently the shortest channel on the Texas Gulf with direct access to the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway.
In June, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp. announced that it had received a $157.4 million contract from the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers to handle the federally-funded channel deepening project.
“Great Lakes is pleased to add the above work to our backlog of capital and maintenance dredging projects,” said Lasse Petterson, Great Lakes president and CEO. “The Freeport project is one of the first capital projects to be awarded by the Army Corps of Engineers this year, and there is a great need for this project and similar ones to continue to support the overall improvement and resiliency of our country’s environment, coastlines and infrastructure.”
The Port Freeport dredging project is slated for completion in the fourth quarter of 2025 and is the third largest domestic award in Great Lakes’ history.