The Sabine–Neches Waterway is located in southeast

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

and

Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana Calcasieu Parish (; french: Paroisse de Calcasieu) is a parish located on the southwestern border of the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 216,785. The parish seat is Lake Charles. Calcasieu Parish is part ...

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. The waterway includes parts of the

Neches River The Neches River () begins in Van Zandt County west of Rhine Lake and flows for through the piney woods of east Texas, defining the boundaries of 14 counties on its way to its mouth on Sabine Lake near the Rainbow Bridge. Two major reservoirs, ...

, Sabine River,

Sabine Lake Sabine Lake is a bay on the Gulf coasts of Texas and Louisiana, located approximately east of Houston and west of Baton Rouge, adjoining the city of Port Arthur. The lake is formed by the confluence of the Neches and Sabine Rivers and connec ...

, and Taylor Bayou. The waterway ranks as third-busiest waterway in the U.S. in terms of cargo tonnage, according to the American Association of Port Authorities. It also ranks as the top bulk liquid cargo waterway, the top U.S. crude-oil importer, and is projected to become the largest

LNG Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volu ...

exporter in the United States. The

Gulf Intracoastal Waterway The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway is the portion of the Intracoastal Waterway located along the Gulf Coast of the United States. It is a navigable inland waterway running approximately from Carrabelle, Florida, to Brownsville, Texas. The waterwa ...

crosses the waterway near Port Arthur. Two of the top twenty (20) ports in terms of tonnage are located on the waterway. The Port of Beaumont, ranked fourth (4th) in the 2013 U.S. Port Ranking by Cargo Tonnage survey is located at the northern end of the waterway. The

Port of Port Arthur The Port of Port Arthur is a seaport in Port Arthur, Texas (United States). 2010 tanker collision On 23 January 2010, an oil tanker and barge collided in the channel leading to Port Arthur, spilling up to 450,000 gallons of oil into the seaway ...

, ranked eighteenth (18th) in the same survey, is located near the southern end of the waterway. The Port of Orange is also served by the waterway. The waterway is currently a minimum of 40 feet deep and a minimum of 400 feet wide. In 2014, federal congressional approval was received to deepen the waterway to a depth of 48 feet. The $1.1 billion deepening project began in 2019 with an estimated project length of 12 to 15 years. The project was originally estimated to begin in 2017.

History

The governing navigation district, Sabine–Neches Navigation District was formed in 1909. The channel was deepened to twenty-five (25) feet in 1912. Channel depth was increased to thirty (30) feet in 1925. The channel was deepened to thirty-five (35) feet in 1935. The channel was deepened to a minimum of forty (40) feet in 1962. United States Army Corps of Engineers New Start $18,000,000 funding was approved in mid November, 2018. The New Start phase was listed on the November 21, 2018 United States Army Corps of Engineers 2019 Work Plan. The Sabine-Neches Waterway Channel Improvement Project, which began in early 2019, will increase the channel depth to forty-eight (48) feet by its conclusion. It will also increase the waterway length from 64 miles to 77 miles.

References

External links

* Port of Beaumont *

* Port of Orange * Beaumont Reserve Fleet {{DEFAULTSORT:Sabine-Neches Waterway Ship canals Canals in Texas Buildings and structures in Jefferson County, Texas Waterways in the United States