Posted on July 5, 2016
By Brian Trahan, Southwest Daily News
According to Director Lynn Hohensee, the Port of Vinton could soon take advantage of the booming LNG industry in Calcaiseu and Cameron parishes.
It fits the mantra of moving the port forward after being defeated at the polls in an April election that would have provided over $350,000 annually. There are other ways for the facility to capitalize on the growth of industry, though.
“We are looking at ways to bring money in,” Hohensee told the Sulphur Kiwanis Club this week. “One of those ways we are contemplating is providing a better quality of construction dirt for all these LNG terminals as they build and expand in Calcasieu and Cameron parishes.”
According to Hohensee, one of the problems faced with construction in Cameron Parish is the lack of quality soil on which to build such massive facilities. He alludes to the bounty of clay-based dirt at the Vinton Port as a means to provide a base — at a cost of course.
The port is formulating a plan to use its abundant open plats of land to meet the needs for construction clay.
“We’re putting together a project that could entice the use of our soil, which we could ship out via barges to Cameron Parish by way of the Intracoastal Waterway,” Hohensee said.
The Vinton Port is connected to the Intracoastal through its channel, which allows for shallow water barge traffic. A dredging project is already in the works to ensure the Vinton Drain Ditch has clear access to the mouth of the Intracoastal Waterway.
The initial goal, should the port go through with the soil project, would be to provide some two million cubic yards of construction clay. This project would coincide with other projects also in the process of coming to fruition.
The Calcasieu Parish Police Jury has plans to extend Johnny Breaux Road north from the port to Hwy. 108, where it would intersect Interstate-10 — obviously allowing better access to the facility.
Another project that will bring in much-needed money to the port is a proposed worker village, which would allow the dredging to become a reality.
The dredging project awaits permitting from the Army Corps of Engineers’ Galveston office
In an earlier story by Daily News staff writer Heather Regan White, Hohensee and Port Board President Jerry Merchant confirmed that if all goes according to plan, the worker village will be located on 50 to 60 acres northwest of Dunham Price, a current client that leases a plat of land from the port, The village would be located in the Camp Louise Road area.
It will, at maximum capacity, house 2,380 workers. The village, estimated to cost nearly $60 million to construct, will bring revenue to the port in the form of leasing and daily per person fees. And, when the work is through, they will leave millions of dollars in infrastructure including two water wells and a sewer treatment facility with almost the same capacity as Vinton’s system.
Source: Southwest Daily News
