By Paul Scott Abbott, AJOTDevelopment of enhanced facilities for handling bulk, breakbulk and project cargos, as well as containers, is continuing at Texas Gulf ports. Texas ports are advancing new and/or expanded facilities for serving such sectors as petrochemicals, oil and gas, wind energy, steel and containerized cargo. Here’s a port-by-port rundown of the latest developments at Texas ports, starting just west of the Louisiana state line, then heading down the coast toward the Mexican border: Port of Port Arthur Port of Port Arthur officials have numerous reasons to be optimistic – from new and expanding export business to progress toward a new terminal to resumption of multibillion-dollar private-industry plant projects. Development of export steel trade to Italy, as well as increases in volumes of linerboard to Spain and the Canary Islands, have helped boost exports, while wood pulp imports from Brazil have remained steady. The port has an option agreement with a corporation looking to establish a bulk liquid transfer terminal on 40 acres of a 55-acre tract the port acquired in 2009 from the Kansas City Southern Railway Co. The tract is just west of the port’s existing facilities on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, known in this area as the Sabine-Neches Ship Channel. The port continues to serve a niche market with a three-berth facility with 185-foot setback, created in a 2000 expansion, that gives the port a strategic position on the waterway for petrochemical interests to tie up vessels and perform such functions as layberthing, bunkering and petroleum transfer. Several East Texas petrochemical industry projects that had been slowed by economic conditions have resumed. A $7 billion refinery being built by Motiva Enterprises LLC is now slated for spring 2012 completion, a $2 billion Valero Energy Corp. decoker and plant expansion is under way again, and a $2 billion Total Petrochemicals USA Inc. hydrocracker is nearly complete. Port of Beaumont At the Port of Beaumont, construction is proceeding toward completion in the third quarter of a $16 million project that is adding about 40,000 feet of rail track at the port, while upgrading another 4,000 feet of track and adding new switches and other efficiency and safety enhancements. The project is designed to eliminate the need for the current off-port interchange yard, thus reducing downtown congestion while making riverfront property available for other uses. The port also expects to award a contract for infrastructure development on a portion of a port-owned 240-acre tract on the east side of the Sabine-Neches Waterway, across from the rest of the Port of Beaumont’s docks. A $22 million wharf has already been built on the property, and road access improvements are also being constructed. Port officials report that this Orange County wharf already has been successful beyond expectations, handling both import and export steel products, as well as shipments of wood chips and bulk commodities. Also, the Port of Beaumont continues to be the U.S. Army’s busiest U.S. port for military cargo shipped to the Middle East. Port of Houston The Port of Houston Authority is continuing construction at the Bayport container facility, with a 10-year permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers paving the way for its build-out. The terminal is reported to be about 49 percent complete. The permit, which was approved in December 2010, was amended and extended to allow for the ongoing construction, dredging, dredge material placement and mitigation associated with the Bayport complex. The permit extension runs through 2020, and the $1.4 billion Bayport complex is expected to be largely completed when the new deadline arrives. Additionally, the Port of Houston Authority earlier this year officially opened Cargo Bay Road and the new truck entrance at the Turning Basin Terminal. Presently, trucks transport about 75 percent of the Port of Houston’s inbound and outbound cargo