Port Of Houston Developments

[Subdude]

What is the point that the billboard is trying to make?

[Jax]

I think somebody is running for office and basically saying "this is what will happen if you don't elect me", or something like that. I heard him interviewed on TV and he seemed kinda weird...

[musicman]

on the radio earlier this week, there was an advertisement that stated "welfare(or whatever the pc term is), it makes america stronger!"

[Jax]

What does that have to do with this terror add?

[jfre81]

Because if you don't vote for me....the terrorists will have won!

[The Great Hizzy!]

I don't blame the politicians, I blame the people. It's not like politicians are from some alien planet. They're a subset of the whole. People are crazy, so why shouldn't the politicians be?

[lockmat]

http://recenter.tamu.edu/mnews/newsSearch....S&CID=41662

[lockmat]

The Panama Canal expansion has caused Gulf ports to dream big and then some, with plans ranging from a joint terminal run by Galveston and Houston on Pelican Island to...

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For very long-term, mind-boggling expansion plans, eyes turn to Pelican Island, in Galveston Bay right across the ship channel from the Port of Galveston, and the very rough joint plans of Galveston and Houston. Houston is the king of container traffic in the Gulf now thanks to its Barbours Cut and Bayport terminals. Barbours Cut has been operating beyond capacity for years, while Bayport is still being built out. But if Bayport also reaches overcapacity operations? The move could be to Pelican Island, little more than a pile of dredge spoils now. Galveston and Houston are considering a cooperative agreement in anticipation of potential huge demand post-Panama Canal expansion and beyond; a formal Memorandum of Understanding concerning the project was announced in 2007.

[strickn]

Well, post-Panamax ships are going to begin coming through the new canal in 2014, so if Bayport will take until 2015 to build out, and Pelican Island would be even bigger, then Pelican will come onto the scene far too late to capture demand response at the outset.

Port Freeport is wanting (not very publically - though they have a 1300 acre multimodal site with two 1200 foot container ship berths listed in one place on their web site, they are none too forthright with the community about truck and rail traffic skyrocketing) to draw a lot of container traffic, despite having rail service only on a single 20 mile spur from Angleton's UP yard. Pelican Island's rail service would be even more circuitous, not to mention requiring a new water crossing that wouldn't interfere with navigational traffic.

Edited December 23, 2008 by strickn

[plumber2]

Texas City is waiting in the wings also with their private Shoal Point site.

[lockmat]

APS Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of optical character recognition (OCR) and automation technology solutions for marine and intermodal terminals, announced the Port of Houston Authority (PHA) will implement the APS Gate OCR Portal to automate equipment identification, traffic processing and imaging at both its marine terminals in Houston.

PHA will implement fourteen total lanes of Gate OCR at its Bayport and Barbour's Cut terminals. The APS Gate OCR Portal provides centralized optical character recognition, identification and imaging of equipment exiting the terminals via over-the-road trucks. The system automatically identifies containers, chassis, and license plates associated with the equipment.

...[it] enable the automatic 'out gate' function to process the equipment without human interaction. Once installed, PHA customers can verify the status and condition of their cargo using the APS system images linked into the PHA website.

"OCR solutions facilitate faster cargo velocity and have proven to improve a port's air quality emissions. Decreasing the time trucks spend waiting to exit a terminal and reducing idling time helps lower diesel exhaust that vehicles emit," said Russ Scheppmann, APS Technology CEO. "This is just another example of The Port of Houston Authority's progressive leadership in embracing programs that improve productivity while also lowering the environmental impact on the local community."

http://www.prnewswir...aps-technology-

93669569.html

Edited May 13, 2010 by lockmat

[TheNiche]

Well, post-Panamax ships are going to begin coming through the new canal in 2014, so if Bayport will take until 2015 to build out, and Pelican Island would be even bigger, then Pelican will come onto the scene far too late to capture demand response at the outset.

Port Freeport is wanting (not very publically - though they have a 1300 acre multimodal site with two 1200 foot container ship berths listed in one place on their web site, they are none too forthright with the community about truck and rail traffic skyrocketing) to draw a lot of container traffic, despite having rail service only on a single 20 mile spur from Angleton's UP yard. Pelican Island's rail service would be even more circuitous, not to mention requiring a new water crossing that wouldn't interfere with navigational traffic.

Do you know whether it still possible that the Port of Houston Authority might eventually develop the second terminal at Barbour's Cut that had been evaluated as an alternative to the Bayport site?

Also, if a lot of cargo is shifted to larger ships, then even if we see an up-tick in total cargo, would it be possible that the amount of ship traffic might not be that great? And if that were the case, then how many more intermodal wharves can we realistically accommodate in a post-Panamax future?

[ricco67]

Do you know whether it still possible that the Port of Houston Authority might eventually develop the second terminal at Barbour's Cut that had been evaluated as an alternative to the Bayport site?

Also, if a lot of cargo is shifted to larger ships, then even if we see an up-tick in total cargo, would it be possible that the amount of ship traffic might not be that great? And if that were the case, then how many more intermodal wharves can we realistically accommodate in a post-Panamax future?

Well, I think it's possible that we would still have quite a bit of shipping that still comes through the canal, but I also wonder if the current rail system can handle it.

While the economic downturn has reduced rail traffic out of the port a TAD, once it goes back on the upswing, will it be clogged like it was back in the 90's? There are few ways that it can be resolved given the lack of flexibility to make new lines.

[TheNiche]

Well, I think it's possible that we would still have quite a bit of shipping that still comes through the canal, but I also wonder if the current rail system can handle it.

While the economic downturn has reduced rail traffic out of the port a TAD, once it goes back on the upswing, will it be clogged like it was back in the 90's? There are few ways that it can be resolved given the lack of flexibility to make new lines.

That certainly gives some credence to the Texas City alternative. OTOH, plans for commuter rail *could* have an effect on that.

And true enough, the quantity of cargo that transits old Harrisburg is mind-boggling. And the railroad bridge at Broadway and Erath Street is a bottleneck to all of rail service for the port industries south of the Ship Channel. (Let's hope Al Quaeda doesn't know that.)

Edited May 13, 2010 by TheNiche

[ricco67]

That certainly gives some credence to the Texas City alternative. OTOH, plans for commuter rail *could* have an effect on that.

And true enough, the quantity of cargo that transits old Harrisburg is mind-boggling. And the railroad bridge at Broadway and Erath Street is a bottleneck to all of rail service for the port industries south of the Ship Channel. (Let's hope Al Quaeda doesn't know that.)

The more I think about it, I would be in favor of a railroad "trench" like the one in LA. That would certainly increase traffic (two or 3 lines), lower the noise, and allow them to transport it faster.

Of course, that would require about 50ft of ROW to construct? The residents would be in an uproar, but without it, I can see the various area ports slowly wither and die.

[TheNiche]

The more I think about it, I would be in favor of a railroad "trench" like the one in LA. That would certainly increase traffic (two or 3 lines), lower the noise, and allow them to transport it faster.

Of course, that would require about 50ft of ROW to construct? The residents would be in an uproar, but without it, I can see the various area ports slowly wither and die.

Grade-separating railroads would remove railroad crossings, thereby reducing congestion, extending the lifetime of shock absorbers, and creating 100% quiet zones. And trenching would create stormwater detention capacity, resulting in many homes being removed from the floodplain, lower insurance rates, and fewer property taxes going to the HCFCD. If the trench had to take out a row of homes that backed up to the tracks, leaving only front yards as a buffer zone...I'm thinking that the neighborhood groups would probably just throw the fringe minority under the bus.

Also, I wouldn't use the phrase "wither and die" so much as I might use the phrase "expand to capacity and then stagnate."

[hindesky]

Architect - https://www.hdrinc.com/portfolio/barbours-cut-container-terminal-maintenance-facility