Containerized Freight Movement in Texas

(PI: Rob Harrison, CoPIs: Chandra Bhat, Steve Roop, Curtis Morgan & Jeffery Warner)

Global trade has grown significantly in the past two decades and now most non-bulk traffic moving between the main world markets moves by container. The economy of Texas imports and exports substantial volumes of freight by container -through east coast, west coast, and gulf ports- as well as providing highway and rail corridors for containerized traffic moving through Texas to origins and destinations outside the state. While some of these origins and destinations lie within the continental United States, other are associated with NAFTA, European, and Latin American trade corridors. Little is currently known about how containers move through Texas on the various modes. This study will first identify the container flows using a GIS platform and then evaluate the potential for moving of containerized traffic from Texas highway corridors to other modes.