Grain Facility Demo Signals Port Cargo Progress

After almost 100 years, the Port of Galveston's towering grain facility will soon be no more. The Galveston Wharves is demolishing the decommissioned elevators and silos to make room for other types of cargo, like roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) cargo and giant wind turbine pieces.

Our 199-year-old port has been in the grain business for more than half of its existence, but things change. As Benjamin Franklin said, "When you are finished changing, you are finished." And as anyone who follows the port's incredible growth trajectory can see, we are far from finished.

The grain elevator demo is just the latest major change in the port's landscape signaling progress.

Galveston's grain history

The port built its first grain elevator at Pier 16/18 in the 1890s, at about the time that the U.S. Congress decided to deepen Galveston's natural channel and build a protective jetty system.

By 1900, Galveston was the leading U.S. port for cotton exports and the third most important for wheat export.

Investment in the grain cargo business continued with the opening of Elevator B at Pier 30/33 in 1931. It was the largest grain elevator on the coast in the nation, with a storage capacity of 6 million bushels. By 1951, Elevator B's tonnage helped Galveston set a national record for exports from a single port.

In 1976, a private entity built Elevator C at the same location at a cost of $26 million. One year later a disastrous explosion leveled parts of Elevator C except for some of the concrete silos.

The facility reopened in August 1980. Eventually, the port took ownership of the facility and leased it to operators until 2023 when the last operator ended its lease with the port.

Goodbye to grain

More than many other types of business, cargo is influenced by geopolitics, weather events, global economics and technological advances. Grain is no different.

Over the years the grain market has softened, opening the opportunity for the port to use acreage occupied by the facility in other, more profitable ways.

In June the Galveston Wharves Board of Trustees approved a $3.55 million contract to demolish the facility.

When demolition begins, don't expect to see a huge implosion. It will take up to 250 days and proceed in stages. Grant MacKay Demolition Company will use several pieces of equipment, including huge cranes and high-reach excavators to demolish the elevators and silos in pieces, similar to the recent demolition of the former Lipton Tea building on Harborside Drive.

The concrete will be crushed onsite and used for fill and for leveling the area. The port is also looking into the possibility of using some of the concrete rubble to fill in a slip in the West Port Cargo Complex as part of another major cargo expansion project.

As we say goodbye to a piece of the port's history, we welcome the opportunity to handle cargos that will be more profitable for the port and generate more work hours for members of the International Longshoremen's Association who move the ro-ro and wind cargos.

Rodger Rees is Galveston Wharves port director and CEO.

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