Elected officials from Orange County, port officials and business leaders gathered on the sparkling new concrete deck of the 650-foot-long wharf to watch the ocean vessel BBC Colorado discharge a cargo of steel billets for use at the Gerdau Ameristeel Beaumont plant. The billets were shipped from a steel mill in Brazil and will be used by the Beaumont mill to make wire rod. Officials cut a ceremonial ribbon commemorating the completion of the new wharf, which marks a significant milestone in the port’s almost 100-year history.
The new wharf is the first port facility ever built on the Orange County side of the Neches River, and the first significant improvement to the Port of Beaumont’s property there. The port owns some 455 acres in Orange County, stretching from I-10 south to the river. Three major railroads run through the middle of the property, providing rail service to all of North America.
Construction of the new wharf, which was designed by Lanier & Associates Consulting Engineers Inc., and built by Orion Construction LP, began in May, 2008, and was finished November 6. The BBC Colorado was berthed at the new dock November 8, and begin discharging its cargo the following day
The deepwater wharf is part of a total of $60 million in capital improvement projects under way or recently completed at the Port of Beaumont. Other projects planned for the Orange County site include construction of open cargo storage lots and road and rail infrastructure. The port has received $4 million in funding from the Economic Development Administration towards a $5.5 million project to link the port’s property to existing railroads. Another $4 million will be spent to construct an access road connecting the new wharf to Interstate 10. That project received $2 ½ million under the Surface Transportation bill in 2005, under a measure jointly sponsored by U.S. Congressmen Kevin Brady and Ted Poe.
Other improvements to the Orange County site will be funded under public/private partnership agreements with users.
Part of the Orange County property has been in the port’s possession for decades. The 240-acres between the railroad tracks and the river was acquired by the port in 1937, and was used for the remainder of the 20th century as a place to deposit silt and sand from periodic dredging of the Neches River. Eventually, the level of the site was raised and initial development of the tract began with creation of a roadbed and bulkhead in the late 1990’s. In 2007, the port began to use the property to store steel pipe, which was imported and eventually used to transport liquefied natural gas from new LNG terminals constructed in Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana.
The remaining property, which reaches from the railroad tracks north to Interstate 10, was purchased by the port in 2005 The port has also acquired additional tracts of land further downstream, which will be reserved for future dredging. All told, the port owns some 828 acres of property in Orange County.
Construction of the new wharf was financed with port revenues and revenue bonds.