During its public meeting on Monday, January 26, the Port of Houston Authority commission rejected all competitive sealed proposals that had been received for the potential negotiation and awarding of a contract for construction of the container yard at the Bayport Container and Cruise Terminal. The commissioners determined that obtaining new CSPs for this project would provide the best value for PHA, and authorized re-advertisement for receipt of new CSPs.
The decision does not affect the overall construction schedule of the
facility. The container wharf contract is still scheduled to be awarded
in February or March.
On January 5, PHA Executive Director Tom Kornegay and U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers Colonel Leonard Waterworth signed the federal permit for
the Bayport project, marking the critical step in the process to build
the $1.2 billion terminal. The Corps has studied the port authority's
Bayport terminal for more than five years, reviewing the site location
and the environmental impacts the terminal might pose. A group of
opponents has sued the Corps and the Texas Commission on Environmental
Quality in an attempt to stop the terminal from being developed. PHA,
however, has intervened in the lawsuits to protect its interests and
ensure that the project can move forward.
The Port of Houston Authority owns and operates the public facilities
located along the Port of Houston, the 25-mile long complex of
diversified public and private facilities designed for handling general
cargo, containers, grain and other dry bulk materials, project and
heavy lift cargo, and other types of cargo. Each year, more than 6,600
vessels call at the port, which ranks first in the U.S. in foreign
waterborne tonnage, second in overall total tonnage, and sixth largest
in the world. The Port Authority plays a vital role in ensuring
navigational safety along the Houston Ship Channel, which has been
instrumental in Houston's development as a center of international
trade. The Barbours Cut Container Terminal and Central Maintenance
Facility are the first of any U.S. port facilities to develop and
implement an innovative Environmental Management System that meets the
rigorous standards of ISO 14001. Additionally, the port is an approved
delivery point for Coffee "C" futures contracts traded on the New York
Board of Trade's Coffee, Sugar & Cocoa Exchange.