Barbours Cut Container Terminal | |
---|---|
Location | |
Country | United States |
Location | Morgan's Point, Texas [1] |
Coordinates | 29°40′55″N94°59′54″W / 29.68194°N 94.99833°W Coordinates: 29°40′55″N94°59′54″W / 29.68194°N 94.99833°W |
Details | |
Opened | 1977 |
Operated by | Port of Houston Authority |
Owned by | City of Houston |
Type of harbour | Natural / artificial |
Land area | 250 acres (100 ha) [1] |
No. of berths | 6 [1] |
No. of wharfs | 6,000 feet (1,800 m) |
Loading area | 230 acres (93 ha) |
Warehouse space | 255,000 square feet (23,700 m2) |
Statistics | |
Annual cargo tonnage | 15.4 million short tons / 17.0 million metric tons (2007) [2] |
Website http://www.portofhouston.com |
The Barbours Cut Container Terminal, or simply the Barbours Cut Terminal, is a major deep water port in the Greater Houston area in the U.S. state of Texas. It is part of one of the world's busiest ports by cargo tonnage.
Barbours Cut is situated along the Barbours Cut Ship Channel, between La Porte and Morgan's Point, Texas. This channel, located at the mouth of Buffalo Bayou on Galveston Bay, is itself a tributary to the larger Houston Ship Channel, which runs from Houston, through the bay, to the Gulf of Mexico. It is located approximately 27 miles (43 km) from downtown Houston. [3]
The terminal is located near the Battleground Industrial District, a major industrial complex in the jurisdiction of La Porte. [4]
Opened in 1977, the Barbours Cut Terminal was built at a cost of US$53 million (US$237 million in today's terms). The new terminal had a distinct geographical advantage over the old Turning Basin terminal. Whereas Turning Basin, situated upriver at the navigational head of Buffalo Bayou, is 6 hours or more from the Gulf, Barbours Cut requires only three hours travel time. [5]
In 2007 the terminal handled 15.4 million short tons (17.0 million metric tons) of cargo including more than one million cargo containers. [2] [6] The terminal both directly and indirectly contributes thousands of jobs to the Galveston Bay Area and is a key factor in the economy of Greater Houston.
Part of the larger Port of Houston complex, Barbours Cut is the largest of the terminals and the first port in Texas to handle standardized cargo containers.
The terminal has six berths with 6,000 feet (1,800 m) of continuous wharfs. The loading area covers 230 acres (93 ha), with 255,000 square feet (23,700 m2) of warehouse/storage space. The channel depth is 40 feet (12 m) at low tide. [1]
The facilities at Barbours Cut include a cruise ship terminal. Until 2007 Norwegian Cruise Line ran cruises from this terminal but currently there are no cruise lines operating from the terminal. [7]
Barbours Cut was the first port in the United States to implement the ISO 14001 environmental management standard, a rigorous set of requirements for minimizing a business' effects on the environment. [8] Nevertheless, the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group, has given Barbours Cut and the Port of Houston a grade of "F" citing "its deplorable treatment of local residents and its few noteworthy programs to reduce the effects of its operations on air and water quality." [9]
La Porte is a city in Harris County, Texas, United States, within the Bay Area of the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 35,124. La Porte is the fourth-largest incorporated city in Harris County.
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Pasadena is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, within the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 151,950, making it the twentieth most populous city in the state of Texas, as well as the second-largest city in Harris County. The area was founded in 1893 by John H. Burnett of Galveston, who named the area after Pasadena, California, because of the perceived lush vegetation.
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The Port of Galveston is the port of the city of Galveston, Texas. It was established by a proclamation issued by the Congress of Mexico on October 17, 1825, while the land known today as Texas was still part of Mexico. The Port of Galveston is the oldest port in the Gulf of Mexico west of New Orleans.
The Galveston Bay Area, also known as Bay Area Houston or simply the Bay Area, is a region that surrounds the Galveston Bay estuary of Southeast Texas in the United States, within Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area. Normally the term refers to the mainland communities around the bay and excludes Galveston as well as most of Houston.
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