Port Mansfield Commercial Seawall and Loading Dock Facility – Ready to Serve

The New Seawall and Staging Dock at the Port of Port Mansfield – Complete, Capable, and Open for Partnership

RAYMONDVILLE, TX, UNITED STATES, September 25, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — There is a difference between promising a port and finishing one. This year, the Willacy County Navigation District finished one. The new seawall and commercial staging dock at the Port of Port Mansfield is complete — on time, on budget, and built to the standard the Harbor has needed for a generation. What stands at the water’s edge today is not a rendering or a debate. It is a reinforced concrete facility with ship mooring bollards, a certified seawall, and just under 400 feet of berth matched by a concrete pad of similar depth. It is commercial water access that serious maritime operators can measure, inspect, and use.

This is the next completed phase of the WCND’s commitment under its 2021 Strategic Action Plan. Coupled with the restored channel depth from the jetties through the turning basin, the Port can now answer the first question every operator asks: Can my vessel safely dock, load, and unload here? The answer is yes.

THE PLAYERS WHO BUILT IT
No waterfront of this consequence is built by one office. It runs through the voters of Willacy County, who created the Navigation District in 1950, and the five-member Board of Commissioners charged with protecting that asset. TxDOT’s Maritime Division provided the state partnership that kept the seawall fiscally responsible for local taxpayers. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District restored the navigation channel that makes the dock usable. District leadership kept the work aligned with community character and the WCND’s mandate: develop the Port without surrendering it.

“We built this key infrastructure so the next serious conversation at this Harbor can start with proof of our commitment to do things right. The Port of Port Mansfield is investing in itself. That is the invitation.”
— Oscar Montoya Sr., Executive Director, Willacy County Navigation District

WHAT THE FACILITY ACTUALLY IS
This is a shared community staging dock and reinforced seawall — not a tenant-specific terminal, not a container complex. Four hundred feet of berth with matching pad depth is a practical working apron: enough to make up a barge, stage cargo, transfer fuel, service a fishing vessel, or support marine contractors.

That scale is honest. This is a shallow-draft, Intracoastal-connected harbor one mile from the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, with a restored channel depth of 17 feet and more than 1,500 acres of leasable upland — sized for operators who can work that reality, and who will respect it.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR WILLACY COUNTY
Willacy County has always asked its Port to do two things at once: remain the recreational and fishing heart of the Lower Laguna Madre and earn its keep as public infrastructure. This project was designed in that tension, not around it. It adds capability without rewriting the Harbor’s identity, opening a path to lease activity, marine services jobs, and logistics traffic the channel can actually support.

“This project is something the people of Willacy County can be proud of. It creates new opportunities for our community. Supporting our Port is supporting our future.”
— Stacey Reyes, Commissioner, Precinct 2

WHO CAN REALISTICALLY USE A DOCK OF THIS SIZE
A 17-foot draft and 400 feet of berth make this a shallow-draft, small-to-medium facility — not built for ocean-going container ships, but ideal for coastal domestic trade and the traffic that already lives on the Intracoastal. Inland liquid and dry bulk barges (typically 9–12 feet loaded) can fleet, stage, and turn here, with room to serve as a tug and towboat hub. Commercial fishing and aquaculture fleets (10–15 feet draft) gain a certified place to offload catch and transfer product to refrigerated trucks. Offshore supply vessels, crew boats, dredges, and crane barges can moor and stage heavy equipment. Small-ship eco-cruise vessels (200–300 feet, 10–14 foot draft) could find a boutique Gulf stop with a working dock. The berth is also right-sized as a maintenance hub for tugs, workboats, and yachts.

What doesn’t fit matters just as much: no large container liner service, no deep-draft bulk carriers. The turning basin, channel geometry, and community standard call for partners who complement Port Mansfield, not overwhelm it.

“The right tenant for Port Mansfield is the one who can use a 17-foot harbor and 400 feet of honest waterfront and still leave the Laguna looking like the Laguna. Barges, fishing fleets, offshore support, marine repair, short-sea cargo — those are real businesses. They do not require us to become someone else.”
— Alberto Treviño, Commissioner, Precinct 4

AN INVITATION ALONG THE TEXAS INTRACOASTAL WATERWAY
To operators working the waterway from Brownsville to Corpus Christi and beyond: the channel is restored, the seawall is finished, the staging dock is ready. There’s land behind the waterline and an airport on the property. Come walk the pad, measure the bollards, and bring a realistic operating plan — not a brochure written for a different port.

“South Texas is one of the fastest growing zones in the US. Our sister Ports are expanding, and we are looking for the right partnerships that will complement our Harbor and our Community.”
— Lefty Cavazos, Commissioner, Precinct 1

Partnerships will be evaluated in the open. Leases will be written to last. The recreational fishery remains the heart of this place — commerce that can live beside that heart is welcome to make its case.

THE WORK AHEAD IS PARTNERSHIP, NOT CONSTRUCTION
For months, the question was whether the bulkhead would be finished correctly. That question is closed. The next one is better: who will use it well?

“Step One is complete. Now let’s work together to find a suitable business partner.”
— Steve Kendrick, Commissioner, Precinct 3

This Port, this seawall, this staging dock belongs to the people of Willacy County — and to every business along the Intracoastal willing to invest in a Port that has already invested in itself. The dock is the handshake. The conversation starts now.

Inquiries regarding facility use, commercial leases, and maritime partnerships: Willacy County Navigation District Harbor Office, Port Mansfield, Texas.

WCND Team
Willacy County Navigation District
+1 956-689-3332
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