SWG-2012-00602 - Texas International Terminals - Galveston County

Full Public Notice    Project Plans

The applicant proposes to directly and indirectly impact a total of 18.73 acres of jurisdictional waters of the U.S. as a result of water column shading caused by a proposed structure, the discharge of fill material, and dredging, during the construction of two additional ship berthing facilities to be used for import and export of bulk cargo, oil and petrochemical products.  The facility is designed to accommodate all type of vessels, ultimately including Panamax and Handymax class vessels (once the channel is deepened to accommodate vessels of that size). 

The applicant proposes to construct a 1,500-foot by 109-foot dock using cast-in-place deck slab and pre-stressed, pre-cast steel beams at an elevation of 12.00 feet above mean low tide (MLT).  The deck slab and steel beams would be supported by 1,837, 24-inch-square pre-cast concrete pilings, placed at 7-foot intervals.  A total of 167 rows of pilings would be constructed along the length of the dock and each row would contain eleven pilings.  Construction of the pilings would directly impact 0.17 acre of bay bottom habitat.  Shading from the dock surface would impact 3.75 acres of open water habitat.  The north and west sides of the dock would be reinforced with a 1,600-linear-foot combi-wall bulkhead/breakwater, which would extend north and east of the dock terminus.  The extension is proposed to be 650 linear feet from the top edge of cut of the existing Federal channel.  A protective fender on the eastern dock face, braced with a 12-inch-square concrete pile, would extend into the channel.  Four 48-inch monopole protective mooring dolphins, lined with tires, would be installed:  two along the northern dredge project boundary and two immediately north of the existing dock. 

Prior to initiating new fill activities, the riprap-lined bulkhead would be removed from the existing shoreline.  A new 539-linear-foot combi-wall bulkhead and a 510-linear-foot riprap bulkhead would be installed with 110 cubic yards of clean supportive sand backfill along the northern and western boundaries of the fill area. Approximately 100,000 cubic yards of clean fill material would be discharged behind that bulkhead into 4.61 acres of unvegetated waters adjacent to the existing bay and Galveston Ship Channel to fill the area to 12.00 feet above existing grade.  An associated supportive sheetpile tie-back wall would be installed shoreward of this fill, requiring an additional 1,000 cubic yards of back fill and matching the final grade of the new fill area to that of the existing shoreline.

To provide deepwater access to the new berthing areas, a 10.37-acre area located between the proposed ship loading facility and the existing dock would be dredged to a minimum depth of 40 feet below MLT with a two-foot overdredge, and an ultimate depth of 45 feet below MLT with a 2-foot overdredge when and if the depth adjacent to the channel is lowered.  Approximately 293,842 cubic yards of material would be hydraulically dredged to facilitate the minimum dredge depth.  An additional 36,730 cubic yards of material would be hydraulically dredged to facilitate the ultimate project depth.  Dredged material would be placed into two existing upland dredged material placement areas located at 4800 Port Industrial Road and at 5600 Port Industrial Road