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The Intracoastal Waterway: A Commercial Highway for the Valley
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In the grand scheme of things, Valley barge traffic along the 1,066-mile waterway stretching from Carrabelle, Fla to Brownsville is relatively small. Only 2.5 percent of Texas barge traffic travels between Brownsville and Corpus Christi, according to a report by the Texas Policy Institute.
That, however, doesn't lessen the waterway's role as a player in the Texas economy according to Bill Summers, president and CEO of Rio Grande Valley Partnership, which promotes economic development in the Valley. "The waterway is very, very important to the Valley," Summers said. "Gasoline is shipped to the Valley, raw sugar is shipped out and sand for concrete is brought in."
Texas handles 58% of all Gulf Coast Intracoastal Waterway traffic, according to the Texas Department of Transportation, even though at 423 miles it is less than half the waterway's total length.
"The Port of Brownsville averages 500 - 600 barges a year, and it's not unusual to have five or more in port at any one time," noted German Rico, director of business development with the Port of Brownsville. "From the Port of Harlingen, barges carried 172,000 tons of raw sugar to New Orleans last year," port director W.G. "Butch" Palmer said.
CHEAPER BY WATER
For Port of Brownsville director, Rico, barges just make sense. "Number one, water will always be cheaper than any other mode of transportation," he said. "Number two, moving by barge is not for everyone. But if you're going to ship by volume, let's say 1,500 to 1,700 tons or more, your best bet is to put it on a barge."
Rico said one barge can hold the equivalent of 19 railroad cars or 75 trucks. "If you have volume that can be moved all at once, barges are the way to go," he said.
Rodriguez says that anything you can move by water is 20 percent cheaper than rail or truck. About 40 to 50 percent of cargo handled by the Port of Brownsville is by barge, the rest by ocean-going ships.
The Port of Harlingen is strictly a brown water (shallow draft) port, only capable of handling barges. There is no barge traffic at the Port Isabel-San Benito Navigation District (located in Port Isabel), but that could change soon, said Bob Cornelison, port director. "Drilling in the Gulf of Mexico will generate a lot of business at the port here," he said.
Most of the port's slips have been leased to oil companies in preparation for offshore drilling. The oil from those rigs will not be carried by barges, but materials used for drilling and producing the oil will be brought in by barges.
TUG BOATS AND BARGES
 The typical barge is 195 feet long and 35 feet wide with a 9- to 9 1/2-foot draft and a carrying capacity of 1,500 tons. The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway ends at the Port of Brownsville.
From the Port of Brownsville, bulk materials manufactured in Mexico head north. Those same steel coils from Pittsburgh are returned as finished products. From Harlingen, raw sugar is shipped to New Orleans to be refined.
It takes a barge about 30 days to make the trip from Minnesota to Brownsville, traveling down the Mississippi River where it connects to the Intracoastal Waterway at New Orleans and then on to the Valley -- not the speediest way to move goods. Barge commerce is slow -- the slowest form of bulk transportation there is.
Barges travel at 4 to 5 mph. Contrast that with the average person's walking speed of 3 mph. But barges run 24 hours a day, only tying up during severe storms. They are equipped with radar, global positioning systems and searchlights. Running a barge at night is "just like driving a car at night," Rooney said.
The tugs, typically 800 to 1,200 horsepower, burn 800 gallons of fuel a day. Working on a barge can be lucrative. Rooney says captains make $100,000 a year and starting deck hands pull in $24,000, with benefits such as insurance and retirement. With more business, more jobs are created. This creates strong demand for local services and housing.
THE PAST AND THE FUTURE
The Valley was the last section of the Intracoastal Waterway to be completed. In 1942, legislation was passed authorizing the waterway to be widened from 100 to 125 feet and deepened from 9 to 12 feet, and with it, extended from Corpus Christi to Brownsville. The extension was completed in 1949.
The waterway's expansion and deepening coincided with America's entry into World War II. Shipping goods and troops by an inland waterway provided security during war. The Valley segment passes through the environmentally sensitive Laguna Madre between South Padre Island and the mainland.
The waterway also passes under the Queen Isabella Memorial Bridge and ends a few miles north of the Rio Grande where barges enter the Brownsville Ship Channel.
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