Impacts of Inland Ports on Trade Flows and Transportation in Texas

(PI: Rob Harrison, CoPIs: John McCray, Russell Henk, Chandra Bhat, and Mike Walton)

The United States now competes in a global marketplace where intermodal transportation is recognized as an integral component of a systems approach to conducting competitive and efficient business. International trade in Texas moves on transportation corridors that are monitored as part of TxDOT’s statewide transportation plan. In recent years, a large share of U.S. merchandise trade (by value) has been processed at inland ports, rather than border ports of entry. Inland ports appear to offer a number of attractive attributes to shippers and may complement the corridors they serve by raising service levels and lowering costs. This project will include an evaluation of the role of inland ports in terms of corridor efficiencies, and will characterize their structure and develop an evaluation process to allow TxDOT planners to review potential inland port sites from a transportation planning perspective.