Page 37: of Maritime Logistics Professional Magazine (May/Jun 2017)

36 38

As marine vessels double in size, Port Houston leverages McCarthy

Building Company’s experience and track record as it looks to main- tain its enviable rank among U.S. ports. A massive renovation and growth project is now underway in the Bayou City.

By Joseph Keefe t is heating up again in the Nation’s second busiest port, All of these efforts involve the goals of increasing capacity and not just because the dog days of summer are almost and modernizing the existing facilities to meet the require-

Iupon us. Houston, like other major, blue water gateways to ments of tomorrow’s traffc.

the United States, is in the midst of several major infrastruc- As one of the busiest ports in the world and consistently ture upgrades. At the heart of that effort is McCarthy Building ranked either frst or second for U.S. ports in terms of tonnage,

Companies, a U.S. based construction frm that won the con- imports, exports and total tonnage, the projects aim to help the tract to accomplish not one, but three different projects in the Port maintain that ranking. Doubling down on its existing traf-

Bayou City’s largest economic engine. fc and that which is sure to come, to and from the expanded

Actually, McCarthy has a longstanding relationship with Panama Canal, the port upgrades are substantial. The Barbo-

Port Houston. Bob Rogers, McCarthy Vice President of Ma- urs Cut Wharf 2 Rehabilitation project, for example, involves rine Operations, told MLPro this month, “Since 1991, we’ve an upgrade to support larger cranes that can accommodate completed 22 projects with the Port worth about $450 million. post-Panamax vessels, while the Bayport Wharf 2 construc-

Our expertise with port facilities is quite broad – we build tion will create 670 linear feet of new wharf for a container marine structures – docks, wharves, piers - container storage off-loading facility. Work at the Container Yard One and East yards and everything in between.” End at Barbours Cut Terminal consists of the reconstruction of

Rogers, who joined McCarthy in 2000 as a project engineer, 40+ acres of container yard space.

has throughout his 16-year McCarthy career, contributed to the For Barbours Cut, Port Houston has purchased ZPMC success of several projects including the reconstruction of IH 410 cranes which are scheduled to arrive from China in mid-2017. in San Antonio, the Port of Houston Bayport Terminal Wharf 1, McCarthy’s contract requires them to ensure that the crane rail and MARAD’s Beaumont Layberth Facility, just to name a few. is installed and new electrical service to the cranes is working

It turns out that Houston isn’t the only port that’s ramping and ready to receive them upon delivery. Those new ship-to- up for the expected ‘new normal’ from increasingly larger, shore gantry cranes will most likely be installed by the manu- deeper and heavier marine traffc emanating from the ex- facturer directly.

panded Panama Canal. For its part, McCarthy has worked The 10-acre Container Yard 1 is 40 years old, and the 30- for several ports along the Texas gulf coast in recent years, acre East End Yard currently serves as a storage area for mis- completing in 2012 an 800 foot concrete bulk cargo dock for cellaneous cargo. To handle the additional container cargo that

Port Freeport that included about 700,000 cubic yards of me- will be generated by post-Panamax vessels, the entire 40-acre chanical and hydraulic dredging. “We also constructed the area is being upgraded to a full service container yard, which

Port of Port Arthur’s last major wharf expansion – a 2,800 lin- requires a new 18 inch-thick RCC paving section, trench drain ear foot concrete dock on concrete cylinder pile foundations,” system, electrical service and high mast lighting. said Rogers, adding, “Additionally, we work for many private For the Barbours Cut Wharf 2 rehabilitation project, McCar- clients in the energy, oil/gas and midstream markets building thy will also be involved in the dredging effort. Rogers says ship docks, liquid terminals, and site development work such that this is not often the case, since maintenance dredging is as tank foundations and pipe racks.” generally performed under separate contracts that include fed- eral funding and allow use of USACE owned placement areas.

PORT HOUSTON HEATS UP McCarthy’s peak collective workforce between the three

At Port Houston, McCarthy is engaged in three different projects will top out around 200. Rogers explains, “We are projects; specifcally the Barbours Cut Wharf Rehabilitation anticipating almost 700,000 total man hours to complete these (Phase 2), which began in January 2016; the Bayport Wharf projects, 350,000 of which will be self-performed by McCar- 2 project and the Barbours Cut C1 Middle Yard and East End thy’s direct hire labor.” Each project is being administered un-

Reconstruction, both of which commenced last year, as well. der a separate contract, so each project has different start and www.maritimelogisticsprofessional.com 37

I