Everything Walker Smith said at the RGV Partnership's Commercialization and Investment Tour event

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HARLINGEN, TEXAS - The top project at the Port of Harlingen is expanding the turning basin by about 700 feet on both sides of the ship channel.

If this happened there would be host of new opportunities, says Port Director Walker Smith, including going after the lucrative container-on-barge business.

Smith gave an update on Port activities during a panel discussion at the Rio Grande Valley Partnership’s recent Commercialization and Investment Tour. It was hosted by Harlingen Economic Development Corporation and held at Texas State Technical College-Harlingen.

Smith started by explaining that the Port of Harlingen is a shallow draft port located east of the city of Harlingen. He said it mostly handles fuel, agricultural products, fertilizers and aggregates.

Asked by Harlingen EDC Chief Operating Officer Beverly Ticer Loftus to list some of the Port of Harlingen’s top projects, Smith said:

“One of the big projects that we're working on right now is we're engaged in a Cap 107 study with the Army Corps of Engineers. We're looking to expand our turning basin by about 700 feet on both sides of the channel.

“Once that is complete and we get a favorable response by the Army Corps of Engineers from the study… we will begin building out the bulkhead and new dock space for that expansion as well.”

Smith said the project is vitally important.

“We’ve had almost a 200% growth in commodities since 2017. And so, with that growth in commodities obviously comes a growth in vessel calls. We've had about a 150% increase in vessel calls to the Port of Harlingen. And we're still doing that with infrastructure that was built in the 1950s,” Walker said.

“So, our infrastructure is very outdated at the Port of Harlingen. The growth that we've been seeing came on very, very quickly. So, we're looking to expand that turning basin to help facilitate that growth as well as take on new opportunities. Some of those new opportunities could possibly be a container-on-barge service.”

Smith said that in 2018 the Port of Harlingen received designation from the Maritime Administration to apply for grants to create a container-on-barge service.

“We wouldn't be able to do that without this expansion of the turning basin. And so, we're looking at doing that. That's probably our biggest project that we've got going on right now.”
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