30 THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINE • March/April 2018 TheCoastalBend.com On the afternoon of December 31, 2015, New Year’s Eve, local officials celebrated the departure of the Theo T, a tanker loaded with 600,000 barrels of Eagle Ford Shale crude oil, from the NuStar Energy dock at the Port of Corpus Christi. It was no coincidence that the Theo T set sail at the very first moment it was legal for it to do so, loaded with American oil and bound for a foreign port for the first time in forty years—with Corpus Christi leading the way. The shipment was sold by ConocoPhillips to Vitol, a Swiss trading company, which then marketed it to European buyers. Without much celebration, the Port of Corpus Christi has become the top crude oil exporting port in the U.S. over the two years since the ban was lifted, accounting for some 30% of all U.S. oil exports. While Houston-based Oxy is a major player in the Eagle Ford Shale zone, it is the top producer in West Texas’ Perm- ian Basin, the biggest oil field in the lower 48 states, where half of the country’s onshore rigs are operating. To ensure that the flow of oil and gas from these re- cord fields can meet export demand, the Eagle Ford, Permian, Ingleside, Corpus Christi (EPIC) pipeline project will deliver almost 600,000 barrels of crude, and 300,000 barrels of natural gas liquids, every day, along a 700-mile route that extends from West Texas to Ingleside. While the port’s oil exports grew from about 150,000 barrels per day in 2016, to over 320,000 per day in 2017, this expanded capacity would deliver al- most one million barrels per day to port facilities and bound for destinations across the globe. It is not difficult to envision the Port of Corpus Christi becoming one of the top oil and gas exporters in the world. A nyone who has been in the Coastal Bend long, especially those who live in San Patricio or Aransas County and work in Nueces Country, or vice-versa, have found themselves curs- ing the Harbor Bridge at least as many times as they have marveled at the breathtak- ing view as one descends into the city. As relieved as those hearty 1959 motorists were to say adios to the Bascule Bridge, in safety measures, its replacement was a flawed design from the start. The steep grade of the Harbor Bridge, its lack of shoulders, and its sharp curves at the base of both sides of the bridge, have made it an ongoing traffic and safety headache for al- most sixty years. The World War II era design of the Harbor Bridge was bare-bones by modern standards, and even by the standards of 1959. Pedestrian access is narrow and limited, and bicycle access is virtually non-existent. Its lack of safety barriers has allowed it to be a plat- form for dozens of sad souls over the years who have jumped. The steel frame construction of the bridge is high-maintenance and requires regular blasting and painting to offset corrosion from the salt air. The 1959 Harbor Bridge was built with a fifty-year life span, so of course discussions about a replacement started around its forty-ninth year, in 2008. It did not take long for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDot) to get behind the project, as did the Federal Highway Administration with about one-third of the funding, and with an additional contribution by the Port of Corpus Christi, the new 2020 Harbor Bridge project commenced. Colorado-based Flatiron Dragados is one of the leading infrastructure builders in North America, a subsidiary of the 140-year-old German firm, Hochtief. Dragados has managed major construction projects at the Los Angeles and Denver airports, the World Trade Center reconstruction in New York, the California high speed rail system, as well as major highways and bridg- es in the U.S. and Canada. With an approved budget of some $900 million, the new bridge will be one of the costliest infrastructure projects in the state’s history, let alone the Coastal Bend. For Corpus Christians and our neighbors to the north, our vision of what repre- sents the city in a single glance will change for good. As if the Hemisphere Tower or the Alamo vanished from downtown San Antonio, the icon that most represents Corpus Christi’s identity is about to be replaced. Cable-stayed suspension bridges utilize one or more towers, or pylons, that tether huge cables in a left: The new Harbor Bridge will feature LED lighting on the cable structure, plus marque lighting atop each 528-foot tower. above: Three lanes of traffic plus safety shoul- ders, which are not provided on the current bridge, comprise the new design. right: Protected pedestrian path and observation decks will allow sightseers safe access to the tallest structure south of San An- tonio, providing incredible views of Corpus Christi, the Port and bay.