Sabine-Neches_Waterway
Sabine–Neches Waterway
Body of water in Louisiana and Texas, United States
The Sabine–Neches Waterway is located in southeast Texas and Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, United States. The waterway includes parts of the Neches River, Sabine River, Sabine Lake, 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 exporter in the United States.[1] The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway 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, ranked eighteenth (18th) in the same survey, is located near the southern end of the waterway.[2] 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.[3][4]