CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Port of Corpus Christi offered an up close and personal tour of the ship channel on Tuesday in preparation for a big announcement.
The official kickoff of the Port's nearly $400 million channel expansion project is Wednesday.
Port officials have already started dredging near Harbor Island, but Wednesday will be their official groundbreaking ceremony for phase one of their expansion.
According to port officials, the project will deepen the channel from 47 to 54 feet so larger ships can come in.
Currently, the Port of Corpus Christi is the number one exporter of U.S. crude oil in the nation. Around 500,000 barrels of crude oil comes through the port a day.
After the project is complete, the Port expects about $2 million barrels to come through a day.
"This is a momentous occasion for the Port of Corpus Christi as we will have the deepest draft channel in the entire ..U.S. Gulf. That means more exports of Texas energy, American energy, and our allies and trading partners around the world," CEO Sean Strawbridge said.
Port officials expect a $39 billion economic impact as soon as everything is complete.
According to Strawbridge, the project has been nearly three decades in the making. The plan all happened because of the collaboration between the Port, the federal government, and the army corps of engineers.
The Port's goal for completion of the whole expansion is late 2021.