By PortalPortuario Editorial Team
@PortalPortuario
The Port Commission of the Port Houston Authority held a special public meeting to discuss the proposed user fee ordinance for the Houston Ship Channel Expansion – Project 11.
Port Houston is implementing a user fee based on federal law to pay the local share of Project 11 costs.
For this reason, the Harbor Commission Chairman Ric Campostated that “this ordinance represents the official text that will put the user fee into effect and is the result of extensive collaboration with private industry to create a transparent, fair and equitable user fee. The idea of implementing a user fee is based on a proposal originally suggested by members of the main industries along the canal.”
“The partially completed canal is already generating immediate and tangible benefits for all vessels, by significantly reducing daylight restrictions for the vessels in question by up to two hours in each direction,” Campo said.
The tariff is expected to take effect in late 2025 and end when all local costs have been recovered, which is estimated to take 30 years.
It should be remembered that at the beginning of 2024, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) ranked it as the busiest waterway in the country, despite being the narrowest canal at 161.54 metres (before the start of Project 11); many major US ports are over 30 metres wide.
