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Galveston Harbor has received critical maintenance dredging funding for Fiscal Year 2025.
Congressman Randy Weber announced recently that Congress approved $47,975,000 in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers budget for Galveston Harbor and the entrance channel to Galveston Bay.
This may be the largest federal amount ever budgeted for Galveston Harbor and entrance channel maintenance work.
The port, as federal sponsor for the harbor, led the effort to secure the funding, with strong support from private operator Texas International Terminals, the Galveston-Texas City Pilots Association, leadership at the Corps’ Galveston District, and countless other port partners who wrote support letters.
The funding includes maintenance dredging to bring the harbor to its federally authorized depth of 46 feet and work on the Corps’ San Jacinto dredge spoils placement area on the far east end of the island to store the additional spoils. It also includes entrance channel dredging, which benefits the ports of Galveston, Texas City and Houston.
Galveston Harbor accommodates large ships, from 34-foot-draft cruise ships and car carriers up to 44-foot-draft liquid bulk carriers. The federally owned portion in the middle of the harbor must be dredged regularly to remove the silt that naturally builds up and reduces depths. But rarely has the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers received enough federal funding to maintain the full depth.
Without ongoing maintenance, shoaling quickly builds up, limiting depths, constricting commerce and threatening jobs. This has the biggest impacts on deep-draft cargo carriers, like those that call on private terminals in the harbor.
In 2024, the harbor asked for $48 million and received nothing for harbor maintenance. As a result, the harbor has been draft-restricted to 40 feet, causing some cargo ships to divert from Galveston terminals to other ports. This has resulted in a loss of revenues and jobs.