Port of Corpus Christi prepares for temporary ship channel closure during old Harbor Bridge demolition<\/a><\/p>\nWith the deepening of the Corpus Christi Ship Channel completed in June and the construction of the new Harbor Bridge nearing completion, Port officials say the region is poised for new opportunities \u2014 from expanded energy exports to entirely new types of shipping.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to have more pipeline capacity down here. Two of the three main pipelines that come to Corpus Christi from West Texas are expandable, so we\u2019re hoping to see the investment from those companies to expand those pipelines in the next few years and we\u2019ll continue to move that crude oil. But there\u2019s lots of other things available now to us because of the deeper channel and higher bridge capacity and so we\u2019ll be taking a look at container ships for example. Seeing if there\u2019s a market there,\u201d said Kent Britton, CEO of the Port of Corpus Christi.<\/p>\n
Britton said the port\u2019s growth has opened up the potential to attract new industries and customers \u2014 including container shipping, something the port has not previously handled.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, if we get into something like containers that will, by nature of the fact we don\u2019t have any now will mean new customers. But the markets from Corpus Christi are endless. You can go anywhere in the world by water once you get out of here and so we\u2019re looking forward to the additional business,\u201d Britton said.<\/p>\n
Local business leaders say that kind of diversification \u2014 adding new shipping capabilities while continuing to strengthen the port\u2019s energy exports \u2014 is exactly what will keep the Coastal Bend economy thriving.<\/p>\n
\u201cTexas is crude oil rich, and those pipelines certainly help service that. But I think it\u2019s been the deepening of the channel, the expansion at the port itself that continues to have that capacity to bring in these very large crude carriers. So I think as you continue to see the port enhance, it\u2019s going to continue to grow the economy in the Coastal Bend and in Texas,\u201d said Al Arreola Jr., president and CEO of the United Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n
Arreola also emphasized the need for long-term planning as the region continues to grow, especially when it comes to managing resources and maintaining infrastructure.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really important that we continue to look at our situation objectively and try to find solutions: long term, long range, and obviously the ones that\u2019ll solve the immediate need and challenges that we\u2019re dealing with…. water is everything, and we\u2019re gonna need to keep cognizant of that,\u201d Arreola said.<\/p>\n
As the Port of Corpus Christi continues to expand its footprint and shipping capacity, leaders say the community must also be ready to tackle challenges \u2014 including the region\u2019s ongoing water supply concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have full confidence that we\u2019re going to get through this and get this worked out. There are lots of options on the table and I feel very confident the city is going to find its way through this situation that we\u2019re in and then hopefully it rains,\u201d Britton said.<\/p>\n
Port officials say continued investment in infrastructure \u2014 from pipelines to terminals \u2014 will be key to maintaining Corpus Christi\u2019s position as one of the largest energy export hubs in the nation, while also preparing for new industries and markets that could redefine its future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Port CEO Kent Britton says growth has opened the door for new industries \u2014 including container shipping, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":["post-7869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}