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The Port of Harlingen announced that it has been awarded more than $6.9 million in grant funds from the Texas Department of Transportation’s Seaport Connectivity Program, formerly the Rider Grant Program, part of more than $240 million in TxDOT funding for seaport infrastructure and connectivity statewide.
With the port contributing a 25% match, the SCP grant will go toward four separate projects over two years. The Roadway Illumination Safety and Infrastructure Resiliency Project will improve lighting along Port Road and Cemetery Road as well as roads connecting the port with F.M. 106 and Robles Road. The project will also upgrade drainage ditches along Port Road to address road erosion.
The F.M. 106 Railroad Approach Safety Project will entail replacing asphalt approaches to rail line with concrete approaches “for improved safety for the traveling public,” according to the port. Both the projects are slated for the 2024 fiscal year.
Scheduled for the 2025 fiscal year is the East Side F.M 1846 Port Traffic Congestion Mitigation Project, which will widen a portion of F.M. 1846/Oscar Williams Road between Cemetery Road and Robles Road and provide acceleration and deceleration lanes for truck traffic, plus an overhead flashing beacon at F.M. 1846 and Robles Road.
Also scheduled for 2025 is the F.M. 106-F.M. 509 Intersection Port Connectivity Safety and Resiliency Project, which will upgrade the intersection’s approaches from asphalt to concrete, with extended approaches for the southbound left-turn lane onto F.M. 509 and right-turn lane onto F.M. 106.
The Texas Transportation Commission approved the list of projects during their regular meeting on Sept. 28, after having been selected by a grant committee and then approved by the Port Authority Advisory Committee. SCP is one of two port improvement programs created by the 88th Texas Legislature, the other being the Maritime Infrastructure Program for port capital improvement projects.
Harlingen port Director Walker Smith described port connectivity as “vital to the growth and opportunities for current and future development of any port.”
“Accessibility and safety are just as important as capacity and location,” he said. “Before this last session our legislators really stepped up to the plate, listening to Texas ports in meetings, committee hearings and tours, and came through with money to improve what is the number one ranked state for tonnage in waterborne commerce nationwide.”
Smith added that the Harlingen projects play a crucial role in enhancing public safety around the port, which began operations in 1952.
“These projects are ones we have been pushing for a few years now and we are very excited to be able to see these come to fruition,” he said.
Noting that state funding of ports is common in states like California, Florida and Louisiana, but that “established funding for Texas ports has been non-existent” despite hundreds of port projects that need to be done around the state, Smith said.
In 2022, Harlingen port officials reached out to state officials independently and as members of the Texas Ports Association, and were asked to testify before the House Transportation Committee last September and October, he said.
“We are very grateful our leadership listened and stepped up the plate with funds,” Smith said.
He credited state Sen. Morgan LaMantia, state representatives Oscar Longoria and Janie Lopez, the House Transportation Committee Chairman, Rep. Terry Canales, and Gov. Greg Abbott for “giving Texas a boost with pumping improvement funds into ports and port infrastructure.
“South Texas ports play a vital role in our economy and are key to the future development of our region,” LaMantia said. “I was proud to work with the Port of Harlingen this session, and I look forward to continuing our working relationship. I appreciate the leadership in the legislature and at TxDOT, and thank them for their continued commitment to our ports.”
Texas Transportation Commissioner Alejandro “Alex” G. Meade said funding ports in Harlingen and elsewhere in the state “is not only important for seaport connectivity, but also as a driver in economic development.”
“As the representative from the Rio Grande Valley, the port is very important to me,” he said. “Improvements to the Port of Harlingen not only make the region more competitive, but helps to continue to grow Texas’ economy.”
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, signed into law by President Joe Biden on Nov. 15, 2021, includes $17 billion for port infrastructure projects around the country. As of April, Texas had received approximately $344 billion in 2022 and 2023 for ports and waterways.
