HOUSTON | Ports/Industry Thread

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https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/...Pos=0#cxrecs_s

Port Houston begins planning for next massive multiyear project with Texas City and Galveston

By Naomi Klinge – Reporter, Houston Business Journal
Jan 27, 2026

The Port of Houston Authority is working on early stages of Project 12 after finishing its portion of Project 11.

After 15 years of planning and construction, Port Houston completed its portion of the $1.2 billion project to deepen — but mostly widen — the Houston Ship Channel when it finished its dredging projects from Galveston to the Barbours Cut Container Terminal in October. The Army Corps of Engineers is still completing the rest of Project 11 and is expected to be done in 2029.

Port Houston made a bold decision in funding Project 11: Instead of having the government pay for about 70% of the project, which is typical, Port Houston chose to accelerate the project by taking on about 72% of the costs itself. That decision accelerated the project's timeline. For comparison, the improvement project before Project 11, called Project 10, took 38 years to be completed. The organization plans to recoup costs through a proposed user-fee model for deep-draft navigation vessels moving through the channel.

Now, CEO Charlie Jenkins has shared some details with the Houston Business Journal about what’s to come for Project 12.

“We've already got money to do the studies to begin Project 12. So we've already put our money up, and we're beginning that process,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins said Project 12 is “much bigger” than Project 11 and will include the Port of Galveston and the Port of Texas City. It will focus on widening and deepening, just as Project 11 did, though Port Houston’s portion of Project 11 was mostly widening.