Posted on March 8, 2018
By Tim Acosta, Caller Times
The Port of Corpus Christi is keeping the pressure on the federal government to fund the port’s $327 million channel improvement project.
Sean Strawbridge, the port’s chief executive officer, testified in a hearing before the U.S. House Subcommittee on the Interior, Energy and Environment on Tuesday in Washington D.C. The committee met to examine the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and to determine ways to improve how the Corps handles infrastructure projects dealing with flood mitigation and port improvements.
“Frankly, we’re a little battle-weary,” Strawbridge said. “It should not take 28 years for us to get a dredging project to the point where it is now, so there is certainly room for improvement.”
The project to which Strawbridge was referring was for expansion of the Corpus Christi Ship Channel, which would widen and deepen the channel to accommodate a wider variety of goods and larger vessels. Strawbridge urged federal leaders to do what they could to help port infrastructure projects move along more quickly, including giving port authorities more control over the design and construction processes.
Port officials have been waiting for funding since 1990, when Congress first gave authorization to study channel improvements at the Port of Corpus Christi. The project has been authorized twice by Congress in the years since, but federal funding for construction has never materialized.
The port entered into a project partnership agreement with the Corps of Engineers for the channel work last year, but the project’s estimated 2021 completion date is entirely dependent on the federal government providing its $225 million in funding for the project. The port has already committed the other $102 million in advance funding to get the work started, but that has since fallen slightly behind schedule.
President Donald Trump included $13 million for the port’s ship channel expansion in his budget proposal last month, but that was far short of the $60 million the port initially sought. It is also subject to approval by Congress.
Congressman Blake Farenthold, who chairs the subcommittee, said that changes are needed, as the Corps has a “stunningly large backlog” of projects pending. That includes the Port of Corpus Christi’s channel expansion. Projects like that are needed to help ports keep up with future demand for energy exports and imports, like crude oil and liquid natural gas, he said.
“Approximately $96 billion worth of projects are being bogged down in red tape and, quite frankly, Congress’s broken appropriations process,” Farenthold said.
Source: Caller Times
