Port Houston and commercial truck traffic: containers, terminals and the roads that carry them

Port Houston’s container terminals served about 2.5 million trucks in 2025 and completed more than 3.3 million transactions, with an average truck turn time of about 40 minutes, according to the port’s year-end report.¹ Port Houston handled a record 4,303,345 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers, 4% more than in 2024.

Truck shares are highest on the industrial roads east of downtown, near the container terminals at Barbours Cut and Bayport. In 24-hour counts by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) on May 13, 2025, trucks were 25.5% of vehicles on SH 146 in La Porte and 22.6% on SH 225 near SH 146. On the I-610 West Loop, a count six days later found 5.41%.²

Port Houston container volume by year

Container volume rose 14% in 2022, fell 4% in 2023, then set records in 2024 and 2025.^3,4,5 In 2025, loaded exports grew 7% and loaded imports 1%.¹

Growth slowed in 2026. Port Houston’s monthly table shows 2,973,128 TEUs from January through August, 1.4% more than in the same months of 2025 (Texas Mobility Outlook’s arithmetic from the port’s table).⁶ By the same table, May 2026 was the busiest month since the series began in January 2001, at 398,322 TEUs. Port Houston labels the monthly figures unaudited and says they contain some estimates.

Trucks at the Barbours Cut and Bayport gates

Port Houston reports truck activity as a single total for its container terminals. The 2025 release gives about 2.5 million trucks served, more than 3.3 million transactions and an average turn time of about 40 minutes. It does not split those figures by terminal, define a transaction or say how turn time is measured.¹

Sources: Port Houston terminal pages, last modified April 2025, and the 2025 year-end release.^1,7,8

Barbours Cut also has more than 8,000 feet of working track connecting to off-site warehouses.⁷ On July 21, 2026, the Port Commission awarded a contract to rebuild Wharves 5 and 6 there for larger cranes and vessels. It also approved environmental planning work, including an Environmental Impact Statement, for a Barbours Cut North expansion.⁹

At Bayport, Wharf 7 added 1,000 feet of berth and, by Port Houston’s estimate, more than half a million TEUs of capacity.¹ By July 2026, 21 ship-to-shore cranes were in operation there.⁹

Truck traffic on roads near Port Houston

SH 146 in La Porte carried 21,311 trucks in its 24-hour count, and its frontage roads ran 41.9% to 49.3% trucks in 2024 counts.² The I-610 East Loop at the Turning Basin carried 26,852 trucks (15.03%), and the I-10 East Freeway near Cedar Ln 25,916 (18.88%). The Beltway 8 bridge over the Ship Channel recorded 9,832 trucks, 13.98% of its traffic.

The I-610 West Loop count recorded 16,652 trucks, more than the Beltway 8 bridge, but they were 5.41% of more than 300,000 vehicles. Truck share and truck volume rank roads differently.

These counts include every truck on the road. TxDOT’s classification counts record vehicle type, not origin or cargo. A truck on SH 225 may be headed to a Port Houston terminal, to one of the more than 200 private facilities that Port Houston says the 52-mile Ship Channel serves, or nowhere near the water.¹⁰ Each count covers one day and is not adjusted to an annual average.

Ship Channel bridges

The Sam Houston Tollway’s Ship Channel Bridge carried an annual average of 69,115 vehicles a day in 2024, including 9,192 trucks, according to TxDOT’s bridge inventory.¹¹ The Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA), which operates the bridge, recorded 23,986,027 transactions on it in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2025. Vehicles with three to six axles paid $4.00 to $10.00 with an EZ TAG.¹² A 2023 screenline count in an HCTRA traffic study found 73,100 vehicles a day.¹³

A replacement bridge is under construction. Its south span is expected to carry both directions from spring 2027, with the second span finished by the end of 2030, the Houston Chronicle reported in September 2026, citing Harris County Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia.¹⁴ More on the corridor is in the Beltway 8 guide.

The 610 Loop crosses the channel on the Sidney Sherman Bridge, built in 1973. TxDOT’s inventory lists an annual average of 136,576 vehicles a day in 2020, including 10,926 trucks, and rates the bridge in fair condition.¹¹ A TxDOT project record lists a $1.6 billion I-610 bridge replacement across the channel in long-range planning, with letting estimated for 2038. The record does not name the Sidney Sherman Bridge.¹⁵ More is in the I-610 guide.

Truck congestion near the port

The Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) ranks Texas road segments by annual truck delay per mile. In its 2025 edition, based on 2024 traffic, the I-610 North Loop East from I-45 to I-10 ranked 19th, the I-610 East Loop from I-10 to I-45 ranked 20th, and the East Freeway from US 59 to the East Loop ranked 34th.¹⁶ No segment of SH 225 or SH 146 is in either of TTI’s 2025 top 100 lists.

By TTI’s measure, the worst truck congestion in Texas was on the Eastex Freeway (I-69) from SH 288 to I-10. The full Houston list is on Texas and Houston freight corridors.

Port Houston tonnage and Ship Channel tonnage

Two tonnage figures circulate for Houston. They measure different things and should not be combined or compared.

Port Houston’s 2025 tonnage was 3% above 2024, but below the 55,060,963 short tons it reported for 2022.^1,3 In the USACE data for 2023, the Houston entry ranked first in the nation for total tonnage. By Texas Mobility Outlook’s sort of the same table, it was also first for foreign tonnage (229,019,431 tons) and exports, and second for imports behind New York and New Jersey.¹⁷ The USACE data layer does not state whether its figures are short tons.

Project 11: the wider Ship Channel

Port Houston finished its share of the Houston Ship Channel Expansion, known as Project 11, in October 2025. The Galveston Bay reach from Bolivar Roads to Morgan’s Point is now 700 feet wide, up from 530.¹⁰ USACE, the Coast Guard and the Houston Pilots recognized the 700-foot channel that month, which Port Houston says effectively removed the daylight restriction for vessels in Galveston Bay.¹⁸

USACE leads the remaining work at Barbours Cut. Dredging there began in September 2025; the contractor left in February 2026 and was to return in the third quarter of 2026. In May 2026, Callan Marine was remobilizing to widen the Barbours Cut channel flare.¹⁸ Port Houston says the project is scheduled to be complete by 2029.¹⁹ Texas Mobility Outlook did not find a current official figure for the project’s total cost.

A deepening project, Project 12, is in early evaluation, with no study timeline set.⁹ Road and bridge projects around the port are tracked on Houston highway projects.

Hazardous materials routes near the port

Houston designated the entire 610 Loop as a through route for non-radioactive hazardous materials in an ordinance dated March 4, 1970. It prohibits those loads on I-45 from Franklin St to US 59 (the Pierce Elevated) and on US 59 from I-45 to Buffalo Bayou.^20,21 Deer Park designates SH 225 through the city as a through route, and Mont Belvieu designates SH 146, Loop 207 and FM 565.²⁰

Federal rules require carriers of placarded loads to follow these designations and, where none apply, to avoid heavily populated areas unless there is no practicable alternative.²² The route table is on commercial vehicle safety in Houston.

What the public data does not show

• Port trucks on each road. Port Houston counts trucks at its terminals; TxDOT counts all trucks on a highway. No source reviewed for this page connects the two, so there is no count of port trucks on SH 146, SH 225 or any other road.
• Crashes involving port trucks. TxDOT’s published crash tables flag commercial vehicles but not their cargo or destination. Harris County recorded 5,913 crashes involving commercial vehicles in 2025, countywide.²³ The annual figures are on Houston truck crash statistics.
• Where port trucks go. Port Houston does not publish truck destinations. How freight moves through Greater Houston covers ships, rail and pipelines as well as trucks.