The Texas Department of Transportation has scheduled a series of meetings of the Panama Canal Stakeholder Working Group to discuss preparations for the expanded Panama Canal. There will be meetings in Houston and Beaumont this week.
Harris County Judge Ed Emmett and Port of Houston Authority Chair Jim Edmonds are members of the committee. List
Emmett said this series of meetings is to get input from shippers and those who import or export freight.
“Some people say it’s just going to be the greatest thing to ever impact Texas,” Emmett said to the Houston-Galveston Area Council on Friday. “Others say, ‘Well, if you look at the transit time it takes for a ship to come from Asia all the way down from the canal, is it really going to pay off at all?’.” Listen
He said most of the discussions thus far have not included those who will be using the canal.
“Without picking on any particular people or group, everybody keeps going to Panama to sign agreements, but Panama doesn’t have any freight and they're not the ones with the ships. They have the ditch that they go through.”
Monday’s meeting will be at the Port of Houston Authority's Bayport Container Terminal in Pasadena.
Tuesday’s meeting will be at the Port of Beaumont.
Both meetings are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m.