Port Houston Blog

Written by: Carolyn Ashley, Director of Employee Development & Engagement at Port Houston, and Caitlin Perry, Internal Communications Specialist at Port Houston.

As an international port in the most diverse city in the U.S., Port Houston has a duty to promote diversity, equity and inclusion as an employer, community partner and regional leader. Port Houston recently formalized its commitment by officially adopting a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Position Statement:

Port infrastructure maintenance can seem like a daunting task, but for Lee Composites, Inc. it’s a revolutionary stepping stone. Lee Composites, Inc. is a multi-faceted leader in marine and commercial composite products providing solutions to protect marine and freshwater facing infrastructure. They design and manufacture products such as seawalls, pilings, plastic lumber, rubber fenders, and dock bumpers that are used at ports all around the world.

The Houston Ship Channel Expansion - Project 11 has been authorized to begin construction with WRDA passing in December 2020 and a "new start" designation in January 2021. As the advocate and local sponsor of this crucial federal waterway, Port Houston is partnering with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as well as private industry on a plan to expand the channel at an accelerated pace. With the help of those partners, Port Houston will begin the work this year, making the channel safer and more efficient and ensuring this waterway will continue to remain the national economic treasure it is today.

As the nation’s largest tonnage and one of the busiest ports, there has always been a need to make improvements and keep logistics efficient. Being open for business more than 100 years also comes with trouble spots along the way. However, Port Houston is focused on making infrastructure improvements before any serious problems come under fire. In particular, the area of freight mobility has grown tremendously over the years and this is largely due to the Port Houston teams that make these projects possible.

You’ve probably heard Houston talked about as “the energy capital of the world,” and it truly is. But you probably didn’t know that there are many Houston companies, like Port Houston, that are deeply focused on improving the environment and providing continued sustainability for the future. Port Houston is constantly finding new ways of doing things and implementing changes now that will carry the organization into the future. One of our strategic priorities is to be an environmental leader by implementing ambitious programs and goals to drive this forward.

More online shopping trends mean more goods moving across Port Houston’s docks, and the need for additional space to store that cargo. Thus, we are seeing distribution centers in the Port Houston region being built to keep up with demand.

Since 1914, Port Houston and the Houston Ship Channel have undergone major renovations one after another. Although the widening of the Houston Ship Channel (Project 11) is our current major project, it’s not the only project going on. At Bayport and Barbours Cut Container Terminals the main roads are undergoing construction to improve freight transportation.

Days before Hurricane Laura stormed the coast between Louisiana and Texas with sustained winds up to 150 miles per hour, Port Houston maintenance workers busily went about the task of protecting assets and securing facilities from the much-anticipated stiff winds. This is necessary anytime a storm as ferocious as Hurricane Laura enters the gulf and threatens the gulf coast’s biggest container facility. While Hurricane Laura spared Houston this time, this was a big wake-up call for what may come.