A New Captain Takes Command of TTI's Center for Ports and Waterways

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Howdy, everyone. Welcome to Thinking Transportation.
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Conversations about how we get ourselves and the stuff we need from one place to another.
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I'm Allan Rutter with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute.
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One quirk about the English language is that one word can have different meanings.
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The word ship, as a verb, means to send something somewhere else.
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As a noun, it means a vessel larger than a boat.
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Port can mean one of those slots or openings on your computer.
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It can mean a dark red, sweet wine.
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And it can mean a harbor where ships load and unload.
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Today, we'll be talking to two of my colleagues that know all about ships and ports and freight, as our Center for Ports and Waterways is transitioning to new leadership.
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So in 1995, the Texas legislature created the Center for Ports and Waterways at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute to conduct benefits-oriented research for the maritime industry.
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For the past 23 years, the center, which we'll refer to as CPW, has been led by Jim Kruse, who's been a frequent guest on this podcast.
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Effective September 8th, 2025, TTI has named Vince Mantero, the new director of the center.
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With more than 25 years of experience in maritime and freight policy, planning and program management, Mantero joins TTI from the U.S.
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Department of Transportation Maritime Administration, where he served as director of the Office of Ports and Waterways Planning.
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So today we're pleased to commemorate the passing of the CPW baton by talking to both of these very impressive gentlemen.
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Welcome to you both.
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Thank you.
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It's a pleasure to be here.
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Thank you, Allan.
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Pleasure.
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So to get started, let's talk a little bit about how you came to be attracted to maritime issues.
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Jim, before you came to TTI, you had been a director of the Port of Brownsville.
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What was your journey into the world of ports and ships?
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I tell people I came in through the back door.
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I went to the Port of Brownsville initially to be the director of administration.
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A few months after I started, the commission had a problem with the port director and they asked him to leave.
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They came to me and said, Would you be willing to try this job as an interim CEO?
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And I said, Sure, why not?
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And six months later, they did a full search and named me the permanent CEO of the Port of Brownsville.
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So I tell people I came in through the back door by doing that.
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But once I got started, I found out it's just an interesting industry.
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So many things going on, people from all over the world.
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There's never any shortage of things to study and learn about.
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So it was very fascinating.
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And when I left the port, I did a little bit of consulting work for Foster Wheeler.
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I tell people I was the port director and I wanted to go straight, but that was too hard, so I became a consultant.
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But once I finished the consulting gig, I came to TTI, and that's where I've been for the last 23 years.
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So, Vince, what was your journey to waterborne freight?
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How'd you come to be part of the maritime administration?
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Yeah, thanks again, Allan.
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I think Jim and I may have gone through the same back door, maybe on a different side of the house.
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But actually, my background is, I'm a city planner and I started off in a transportation agency, regional transportation agency, and started doing freight planning there.
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I think it's because no one else wanted to do it.
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And I just really kind of fell in love with it.
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I love the intermodal aspect of it.
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And then soon thereafter went to the port of New York/ New Jersey.
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That's really when I got my first taste into maritime and ports and just really loved it.
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Ended up working as a consultant, working on various statewide freight plans and regional plans, and then went back to federal service with Federal Highway Administration and again on the intermodal side, what they would call surface transportation.
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Arguably, I would say waterborne is surface as well.
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But at Federal Highway, it was kind of just really on the roadway, which was very valuable and very helpful.
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But [maritime] came a calling and kind of went back to my roots and spent about five years there, led the Marine Highway Program over there, did a number of research studies, got to interact with several port colleagues I knew way back when from the port authority days.
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So, in some ways, I'm back home and then coming over to TTI was just the next logical step.
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So let's talk a little bit about why the legislature created the center 30 years ago.
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With the recently permitted Texas Gulf Link deepwater port off of Freeport, Texas has or will have 12 deepwater ports along the Texas coast.
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Each of these ports is very different in terms of activity, types of ships, types of commodities, economic impact.
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We'll talk a little bit about some of those Texas ports to help our listeners understand about what port activity means to the state.
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Let's start by talking about Texas's two biggest ports in terms of tonnage and activity, the Port of Houston and the Port of Corpus Christi.
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What's distinctive about those two ports and how do they matter to Texas?
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Well, the Port of Houston is a massive conglomeration of marine-related businesses.
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People think of the Port of Houston as a port authority, but in reality, it's 200 individual private corporations operating on one ship channel.
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And so it's a very busy place.
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The Port of Houston actually handles 70% of all container traffic in the Gulf.
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It all comes through Houston.
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Plus, they are one of the world's largest petrochemical complexes.
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So there's a lot of petroleum going through there, a lot of petrochemical products, a lot of intermediate things that move on to another stage later on.
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But the reason it's so important to Texas is because oil is our backbone, has been for decades.
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And the oil and petrochemical industry create a lot of jobs, a lot of activity in the area.
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And for the average " citizen," you have the stuff coming in through the containers that is very important to the economy in general.
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People don't realize this, but the leading importers of containers in the United States are Walmart, Target, Toyota, Home Depot.
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So you're getting these things through areas like the Port of Houston that allow you to buy things in the store that you want to buy.
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Then you go to Corpus Christi.
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Corpus Christi is the nation's largest exporter of petroleum.
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They have built huge pipelines down to Corpus and they're just moving stuff out faster.
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They're having to expand faster than they plan to, but it's working out real well for them.
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So those petrochemical products, it's as much liquid petroleum and L& G, liquid natural gas.
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It's the more raw products while Houston is more finished chemical manufacturing.
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Well, it's interesting.
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Houston handles all stages of the process.
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But one of the things they've become a center for is the export of plastic resin pellets, which is what you use to make anything out of plastic.
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And so they have quite a business going there.
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I think they're the nation's leader in that area of exports as well.
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So it's interesting.
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Yeah, I think a lot of that has to do with the Permian basin activity, the large amount of natural gas, and the fact that there's so much of it, it becomes less expensive.
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Natural gas becomes a feedstock for that chemical process, and it becomes a fuel for making the plants work.
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That's correct.
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And we talk about LNG, liquefied natural gas, as a new fuel that produces fewer emissions than the traditional diesel and oil.
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Well, the area from Baton Rouge down to Corpus Christi is just loaded with LNG export facilities.
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And so it's a major industry now in Texas.
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So Vince, tell us a little bit about Houston and Corpus Christi.
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Well, Jim did such an incredible job in summarizing...
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I think the one thing that I would add, especially when it comes to Corpus Christi, I think a lot of people don't realize is, the Maritime Administration, Department of Defense have designated 17 seaports around the country as strategic seaports.
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And these are really important for military deployment.
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And Corpus Christi is one of them.
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And I think when you look at it from not only the energy side, from just basically the economic side, we can't forget the importance of these ports, especially Corpus Christi, to national defense and military deployment.
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And that's kind of the perfect storm of why these two ports are so important for the economy, for energy, as well as national defense.
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So when we talk about Houston-- one of the things that the port will be sure to talk about themselves as the nation's largest port in terms of tonnage-- Houston, because of the businesses that Jim was talking about, all of those aggregate together with an amazing amount of tonnage.
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Talk a little bit about Houston's position within the ports in the national network.
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Well, Houston is a leading port in foreign exports in the country.
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And it's interesting, people always think about ports like Los Angeles, Long Beach, and all the trucks and all the press it gets.
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But in reality, if you put together Los Angeles, Long Beach, and New York, you would still have fewer vessel calls than what we see in Houston in an average year.
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The difference is a lot of Houston's traffic is petroleum and liquid product, which moves by pipeline.
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So you don't see trucks just jamming up the entire area.
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Whereas in Los Angeles, Long Beach, and New York, you have a lot of containers which all have to move by truck.
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So it's a different type of system.
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So it's land side, but most of it's buried.
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Yes, this is true.
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So Vince, when you were talking about the importance of military activity in some of the ports, that's a good segue into talking about some of the other deep water ports in the state.
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Specifically, as we think about going from north to south, Beaumont is also one of those military export ports, right?
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Yeah, so Beaumont and Port Arthur are the other two strategic seaports.
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So again, Texas has three out of 17.
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So again, an emphasis on how important Texas ports are to our national defense and readiness.
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What else is different about Beaumont and Port Arthur?
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So I think one thing to emphasize with Beaumont and Port Arthur beyond the strategic seaports is similar a little bit to I think maybe Corpus, is they also move a great deal of refined petroleum, chemicals, even industrial cargo.
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Those are critical for Texas and the nation.
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I think what's important for both Beaumont and Port Arthur is this kind of dual use for military mobility and commercial trade, as hard enough as it is to run a port for the commercial trade part of it, but then you add the military component on it.
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And so they have a distinct set of uses that makes them very different.
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Jim, anything to add?
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Beaumont actually handles more military cargo than any other port in the country.
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And so Beaumont is a key player in the national defense for the country.
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Yeah, so much of what happens on both Fort Bliss and Fort Cavasos out of Central Texas moves out of Beaumont.
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Yes.
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Let's also talk about Galveston and Freeport, both very different ports, but unusual sorts of activity and very unique within the Texas port network.
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Well, Galveston should be really considered as a cruise port.
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I mean, it has industrial activity, but it is the nation's fourth largest cruise port.
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And it's growing.
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It's actually moving up the ladder.
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So it's an incredibly busy area for the cruise business.
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When you move to Freeport, Freeport's claim to fame has been traditionally banana imports and then RORO, which is roll-on-roll-off cargoes-- trucks, tractors, cars, and so forth.
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And they've had quite a bit of business for some of the major equipment manufacturers, as well as people like Volkswagen and regular cars, so to speak, for the typical user.
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I think Freeport is also, as you had mentioned, this liquefied natural gas.
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They have a lot of that really major manufacturing that's happening there.
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And that's one of those places where a lot of the pipelines are delivering that natural gas where it gets liquefied.
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Well, I should have mentioned it, but Dow Chemical has a huge...
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in fact, Freeport really is Dow in many respects.
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But it has a huge facility down there, and they do use the port.
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They're not on port property, but they use the port assets to ship in and out.
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Vince, what else about Freeport and Galveston?
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The only thing I would add is also we hear a lot lately about what we call the maritime industrial base, right?
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So it's not just the ports, but everything that goes into making a port run-- could be manufacturing, it could be shipbuilding.
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And we're starting to see several of these ports kind of going into that key part of the maritime industrial base.
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Galveston is really into the ship repair and again offshore support operations.
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So beyond just that port influence of the in-and - out of the movement of cargo, the support facilities and the support for the port environment is absolutely critical.
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And you're starting to see several of these ports, whether it's in Galveston or others, really begin to step up and know their role there.
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And I think that's one thing that I would point out about Galveston.
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And obviously with Freeport, I think Freeport-- and Jim can correct me-- is a great pressure valve at times for Houston.
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It can maybe absorb some of that growth.
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It has its own strengths when it comes to LNG, petrochemicals, even containerized trade.
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So I think they just balance each other really, really well.
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So one of the things that you had mentioned there, Vince, was this maritime industrial base.
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That gets me thinking about Brownsville.
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The Port of Brownsville has traditionally had an awful lot of activity taking apart ships.
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Let's talk a little bit about what happens at the Port of Brownsville.
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Well, now you're back to my old stomping grounds.
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There you go.
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That's your home base.
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There is a major ship builder there, Amfels, and they've changed hands several times.
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So I'm not sure what their latest name is, but basically it's Amfels.
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And they build a lot of very difficult to construct vessels.
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They also work on offshore equipment and so forth.
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Brownsville is the nation's leading shipbreaking port, and there's a lot of stuff that goes down there, a lot of old military vessels and so forth that aren't needed anymore.
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They take them down there and break them apart and sell the stuff they break apart.
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So "shipbreaking" is the term that you used?
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Yes.
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I'm gonna have to make a note of that one.
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That's that's good to that's good to keep in your pocket.
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Well, it's a major industry in Brownsville.
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There are very large yards with a lot of people working on it.
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So it's interesting.
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What about Brownsville takes advantage of or serves the activity coming across the border?
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Is there port activity that's border related?
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Well, we used to say, and I guess they still say today, that Brownsville is Mexico's northernmost port.
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I would say probably 90% of Brownsville's business directly relates to Mexico.
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The steel trade is all related to the manufacturing complex in Monterey and Saltiu in that area.
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You have a lot of the jet fuel and things like that doing business with Pemex in Mexico.
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But I guess it flows both ways...
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but definitely it's Mexican related, and most of the port's clients are Mexican.
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So we've talked a little bit about when we were talking about Houston, but let's contrast Texas ports, the entire sort of port complex across the coast.
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What role does it play within the national port system?
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And then how do you contrast our Gulf Coast ports with those on the east and west coast?
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So again, coming from my first really maritime experience was at the Port of New York and New Jersey.
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It was obviously ports such as LA and Long Beach and the Port of New York/ New Jersey are critical ports to the nation.
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What's interesting with them is that they're largely import ports.
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They have basically maybe a three to four to one ratio of imports to exports.
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The difference is the Texas ports are largely exports.
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And that's really what drives the economy.
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And I've always kind of thought about it that the coastal ports and east and west coasts may be the front door to international trade, but the engine is really out of Texas.
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And I think that's one thing that really differentiates the Texas ports-- especially the larger ports in Houston and Corpus Christi-- is that drive to export, which is very different from other coastal ports.
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We're talking about the amount of tonnage that ports handle too.
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Texas has three of the nation's top 10 tonnage ports.
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If you expand it to the top 20, we have five in Texas alone.
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Texas handles more than 25% of the entire nation's marine cargo.
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And so it is a major, major player on the national scene.
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Well, that shows the importance that, given how much of that activity is Texas related, that's got to be have something to do with those exports out of the Texas economy.
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It's not simply about Texas being a waste station of things coming through us, although some of the export grains and other kinds of products are, but it's also exports that are manufactured or added value in Texas.
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Especially when you're talking about petroleum and the petrochemical types of things, that's started here and quite often finished here.
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It is a difference from other ports like Los Angeles, which ships a large percentage of other stuff into the interior of the United States.
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New York does the same sort of thing into the Eastern Seaboard.
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But in Houston, or the ports in Texas, typically handle stuff produced in Texas that needs to get to the world market and brings in stuff that Texas needs, specifically Texas needs from the world market.
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The only other thing that I would add to that is that Texas ports are so well positioned, not only from what we would call maybe the deep water ports, but they're connected to the waterway.
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And so there's a direct marine highway into our inland markets, unlike maybe some of our coasts.
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But even if you come in from the Midwestern states, you're always going to be able to have direct access on our marine highways into our Texas ports, which really adds it and gives it some added value to the whole resiliency of not only the marine system, but the entire freight transportation system.
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Which is a good way to segue into the other name of the Center for Ports and Waterways, which is waterways.
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Tell our listeners about what we mean by that and what that entails.
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Navigable waterways-- are we talking canals, rivers, all of that stuff?
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Jim, why don't you get us started talking about the waterways part of the Center for Ports and Waterways?
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Well, I should back up one step and say when you're talking about marine transportation, you can typically divide it into two large categories.
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One is what we call "brown water," which is the barge traffic that moves down the rivers and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.
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The rest of it is "blue water," which is ocean- going-- goes all over the globe.
00:19:19.920 --> 00:19:24.559
When you talk about waterways, we're really trying to talk about that brown water component.
00:19:24.559 --> 00:19:30.240
It's the barge traffic moving up and down the Mississippi River, the Ohio River, the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.
00:19:30.240 --> 00:19:33.200
So it's a major, major player in the country.
00:19:33.200 --> 00:19:39.759
And in fact, if you look at grain exports, it's that waterway system that makes our farmers competitive on the world market.
00:19:39.759 --> 00:19:43.759
They can get things down to the ocean far cheaper than many other countries can.
00:19:48.079 --> 00:19:52.000
Vince, this is kinda your neck of the woods, where you just came from. Help our guys understand a little more about the role of waterways.
00:19:52.480 --> 00:19:53.440
Yeah, thanks for that.
00:19:53.440 --> 00:19:58.559
It's uh again, I managed the marine highway program when I was at the Maritime Administration.
00:19:58.559 --> 00:20:01.359
And this has always been near and dear to my heart.
00:20:01.359 --> 00:20:02.079
It's...
00:20:02.079 --> 00:20:08.319
Our view is always well, how can we increase kind of usage of our waterways?
00:20:08.319 --> 00:20:15.759
And I think Jim hit on some great points in terms of the importance of our waterways to key commodities.
00:20:15.759 --> 00:20:21.039
It could be agricultural, chemicals, energy, even construction equipment.
00:20:21.039 --> 00:20:33.759
And I think people sometimes forget that just one barge can take 60 or 70 trucks off the road; and try to imagine if those barges went away, all of that would be on our roadways.
00:20:33.759 --> 00:20:37.839
And I think it's one of those that's a bit out of sight, out of mind at times.
00:20:37.839 --> 00:20:52.720
And I think that's one thing that when I was at the Maritime Administration, and I know that the Center for Ports and Waterways, when I was looking at TTI and I know it's Jim's work, is making sure that is visible, the importance of these waterways.
00:20:52.720 --> 00:21:01.599
I kind of say that the ports are critical, but while they're the gateways, the waterways are the arteries.
00:21:01.599 --> 00:21:04.640
And you need to have both to work properly.
00:21:04.640 --> 00:21:16.960
The more we can not only encourage the visibility of our waterways, but find ways to increase the usage of our waterways and help maybe take some of these trucks off the road, I think we're all a little bit better.
00:21:17.279 --> 00:21:24.000
Yeah, I was just attending a supply chain agility workshop that PTI held the past couple of days.
00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:34.799
And some of the speakers were making the case about agricultural exports and how grain exporters out of the United States compete with folks in Brazil or Ukraine in Europe.
00:21:34.799 --> 00:21:40.079
And so much of the benefit or the competitive advantage that U.S.
00:21:40.079 --> 00:21:50.240
agricultural has is the reliability, the relative low cost of that transportation that makes U.S.
00:21:50.240 --> 00:21:52.880
grains competitive on a world marketplace.
00:21:53.279 --> 00:21:54.240
That's exactly right.
00:21:54.240 --> 00:22:03.839
I mean, you know, when people look at our transportation system on a map, they see all the rails and roads, and then there's these big blue lines that no one ever really thinks about.
00:22:03.839 --> 00:22:07.279
But you have to think about it as part of our transportation system.
00:22:07.279 --> 00:22:12.079
And it is really, in many ways, an untapped resource.
00:22:12.480 --> 00:22:13.119
It's interesting.
00:22:13.119 --> 00:22:17.119
I quite often think about the waterways as being kind of like the airline industry.
00:22:17.119 --> 00:22:20.960
You never think about it until a plane crashes, and then everybody thinks about it.
00:22:20.960 --> 00:22:22.799
And it's kind of the same way on the waterways.
00:22:22.799 --> 00:22:27.839
Nobody even notices the waterways until a ship hits a barge and you got oil going everywhere and things go crazy.
00:22:27.839 --> 00:22:29.039
Then they notice it.
00:22:29.039 --> 00:22:32.640
But our job really is to try to make the case that you should notice it more.
00:22:32.640 --> 00:22:34.319
It's making a difference in your life.
00:22:34.319 --> 00:22:39.599
And maintaining the system and making it work efficiently really is important for the nation as a whole.
00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:50.720
Well, that's a good segue into another question that I had is: How do we help our listeners understand why should maritime important matters matter to them?
00:22:50.720 --> 00:22:53.119
What difference does it make to their lives?
00:22:53.119 --> 00:22:59.519
How important is maritime activity to normal folks in the rest of the country?
00:22:59.839 --> 00:23:11.839
Well, I know it may change under the Trump Administration if he has his way, but in the past, if you walked around your house, pick a room in your house, and look at where things are made that's in that room, just pick them up and see what the label says it's made in.
00:23:11.839 --> 00:23:13.359
Very few of them are made in the U.S.
00:23:13.359 --> 00:23:16.559
They came on a boat from some other country around the globe.
00:23:16.559 --> 00:23:22.319
It could have been from Europe, could have been from China, could have been from South America, but it came from somewhere else.
00:23:22.319 --> 00:23:26.079
And if that system breaks down, you won't have that anymore.
00:23:26.079 --> 00:23:29.200
And so it's really important for that system to work.
00:23:29.200 --> 00:23:33.920
And we noticed during COVID how important it was because all of a sudden people couldn't find things in the store.
00:23:33.920 --> 00:23:36.960
And they just went crazy because when are we going to be able to get it?
00:23:36.960 --> 00:23:39.839
And nobody really knew because the system was broken at the time.
00:23:39.839 --> 00:23:45.519
I mean, you can see it in day-to-day life, and COVID kind of highlighted that for us so we could really see how important it is.
00:23:46.160 --> 00:24:09.359
Yeah, I would add to that, right, so for example this is what happened during COVID in, kind of, what is known as "the supply chain crisis." I think, as being in MARA at the time in the Maritime Administration, I think it kind of bothered me a lot for the picture of the supply chain crisis to be seeing all those container ships off ports and ports being blamed.
00:24:09.359 --> 00:24:16.160
And I think people began to have a sense of well, it's not just one part of it that goes wrong.
00:24:16.160 --> 00:24:16.720
It's...
00:24:16.720 --> 00:24:20.160
you have to look at the entire supply chain, the entire freight network.
00:24:20.160 --> 00:24:29.039
And it could be because of truck shortages, it could be because of container shortages, it could be because of rail issues.
00:24:29.039 --> 00:24:38.079
So as Jim alluded to, sometimes people realize and look at ports when things may go bad, when they see those pictures of container ships.
00:24:38.079 --> 00:24:43.359
But I think when things move very smoothly, they don't think about them too much.
00:24:43.359 --> 00:25:07.839
And our role is to tell that story and also help our partners tell that story too, because while we can only be as effective as we can be, it's those that require that support and also those that are hiring, those that are impacting the economy, those that are directly related to the importance of our maritime industry.
00:25:07.839 --> 00:25:15.680
And so we just need to continue to get that message out and not just be a picture on a screen and realize everything that's moving.
00:25:16.240 --> 00:25:20.240
I heard one time of a hearing on the West Coast about a port expansion.
00:25:20.240 --> 00:25:23.440
One woman stood up and said, Why do we have to keep expanding these ports?
00:25:23.440 --> 00:25:25.920
If I need something, I'll just go down to Walmart and get it.
00:25:25.920 --> 00:25:31.119
Well, what she doesn't understand is, Walmart will have nothing on the shelves if that port doesn't expand.
00:25:31.119 --> 00:25:36.480
And so it's very important to our daily life, our way of living for these ports to operate.
00:25:36.880 --> 00:25:38.720
Well, that makes a really good point.
00:25:38.720 --> 00:25:43.279
Let's talk a little bit about the transition at the Center for Ports and Waterways.
00:25:43.279 --> 00:25:49.359
Jim, what are some of the things that you've been able to do during your tenure that you're the most proud of?
00:25:49.839 --> 00:25:51.920
Well, there's a lot of interesting things that I've done.
00:25:51.920 --> 00:25:55.839
And what I like the most is that a lot of what I've done has actually been put to use.
00:25:55.839 --> 00:25:57.519
It's not sitting on a shelf somewhere.
00:25:57.519 --> 00:25:59.279
People care about what it says.
00:25:59.279 --> 00:26:00.559
And I like that.
00:26:00.559 --> 00:26:09.279
For instance, we did a study of the chemical tanker traffic on the Houston Ship Channel, and several large industries, including Shell, picked that up and said, we've got to fix this problem.
00:26:09.279 --> 00:26:12.640
And they used that report to get the ball rolling in that area.
00:26:12.640 --> 00:26:17.920
We've done an analysis of what it costs a port when you don't keep it dredged properly.
00:26:17.920 --> 00:26:21.680
And that also helped them get the funding to get the dredging done.
00:26:21.680 --> 00:26:25.279
We've worked in the waterways industry on locks and dams.
00:26:25.279 --> 00:26:27.839
The whole infrastructure of the industry is in peril right now.
00:26:27.839 --> 00:26:30.240
It's not being maintained; it's in bad shape.
00:26:30.240 --> 00:26:31.680
A lot of things need to happen.
00:26:31.680 --> 00:26:37.519
We've been able to document that, explain what happens when you don't maintain it, what you need to do to maintain it, and so forth.
00:26:37.519 --> 00:26:44.799
And so we've also looked at, for instance, like we did a Gulf Intracoastal Waterway Master Plan for the Texas Department of Transportation.
00:26:44.799 --> 00:26:50.640
And as a result of that plan, we noticed that the Brazos River floodgates needed to be fixed.
00:26:50.640 --> 00:26:52.240
And they noticed that as well.
00:26:52.240 --> 00:26:59.279
And they took our report, went to the Texas Transportation Commission and the legislature and got money to start working on that Brazos River floodgates.
00:26:59.279 --> 00:27:01.519
So the things that we're doing make a difference.
00:27:01.519 --> 00:27:03.599
That's a really good thing.
00:27:03.920 --> 00:27:04.960
That's a great point.
00:27:04.960 --> 00:27:08.799
Vince, what about this job attracted you to it?
00:27:08.799 --> 00:27:16.319
And then, what are the kinds of issues or opportunities that you're going to be focusing on in your first couple of years with TTI?
00:27:16.880 --> 00:27:23.759
Well, just listening to Jim for a few more minutes kind of reinforces why this job is so great.
00:27:23.759 --> 00:27:40.720
You know, for me, when I was thinking about this, I thought, well, this is that position and that next step in my career that really kind of combines everything I've always been interested in, which is kind of policy, planning, and operations, and then research all in one place.
00:27:40.720 --> 00:27:56.480
And what's always impressed me about the center is not only is it great research, but it's research that's being implemented that people can take and use, whether it's a public agency, whether it's an operator, whether it's a port.
00:27:56.480 --> 00:27:59.200
It's not research for the sake of research.
00:27:59.200 --> 00:28:02.640
And I thought, well, this is the next logical step in my career.
00:28:02.640 --> 00:28:07.599
Again, I knew so many colleagues and my work at MARAD and elsewhere from TTI.
00:28:07.599 --> 00:28:16.799
I knew the capabilities, and then I came to the realization that there really is only one Center for Ports and Waterways in this country.
00:28:16.799 --> 00:28:18.640
And it is in TTI.
00:28:18.640 --> 00:28:21.839
And I thought to myself, you know, it's hard to say no.
00:28:21.839 --> 00:28:26.559
I think it kind of combined everything that I was looking for in my next career stuff.
00:28:27.039 --> 00:28:34.319
Talk a little bit about what you see as the opportunities for maritime research at TTI going forward.
00:28:35.119 --> 00:28:38.319
A lot of it is building on what Jim has already done.
00:28:38.319 --> 00:28:42.799
And I do think there's some other areas, and we've alluded to them a few times.
00:28:42.799 --> 00:28:49.599
There's a strong emphasis right now on the maritime industrial base from an economic persepective.
00:28:50.240 --> 00:28:52.480
Especially, Texas is so well positioned.
00:28:52.480 --> 00:28:57.039
There's a lot of talk now about kind of reinvigorating the shipbuilding industry.
00:28:57.039 --> 00:29:00.960
But I think that part of it is really interesting to me.
00:29:00.960 --> 00:29:07.680
The other part, and again, I alluded to it, was this question of where maritime fits into national defense.
00:29:07.680 --> 00:29:11.440
And a common theme, it's a little bit out of sight, out of mind.
00:29:11.440 --> 00:29:21.119
But if you talk to the Department of Defense or Department of Navy, they'll be the first ones to tell you how important our ports are and how important maritime is.
00:29:21.119 --> 00:29:27.440
And so I'd like to look into that a little bit, only because I just think those are very timely right now.
00:29:27.440 --> 00:29:35.359
And ultimately, it's also how can we think about this question of resiliency?
00:29:35.359 --> 00:29:49.599
Not only how to make our maritime network and ports stronger, more resilient, but how to leverage those ports and our waterways during some of these man made or weather related events.
00:29:49.599 --> 00:29:55.359
Can they be used for, as I mentioned, either national defense for evacuation, et cetera?
00:29:55.359 --> 00:29:59.279
So I think there's some areas that I'm very interested in.
00:29:59.279 --> 00:30:04.160
But again, A lot of it is just building on the great work that Jim and the center have already done.
00:30:04.559 --> 00:30:14.480
I could tell from our conversation today and from working with both of you over the years that you have plenty of passion for making transportation better for both practitioners and travelers.
00:30:14.480 --> 00:30:17.359
What are some of the reasons that you show up for work every day?
00:30:17.359 --> 00:30:23.200
And of course, this is going to be a looking back question for Jim who retires at the end of the month.
00:30:23.200 --> 00:30:26.000
But what is it that drives you to do this?
00:30:26.720 --> 00:30:28.160
Well, for me, it's two things.
00:30:28.160 --> 00:30:33.440
One is I work with some really interesting, competent, and knowledgeable people.
00:30:33.440 --> 00:30:36.960
And that makes any job fun because you get to learn all the time.
00:30:36.960 --> 00:30:40.000
You're developing skills, you're seeing things you wouldn't have seen otherwise.
00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:40.960
It's a lot of fun.
00:30:40.960 --> 00:30:49.440
The second reason is because the maritime industry, as I stated earlier, is such a broad-ranging, varied organization of things.
00:30:49.440 --> 00:31:01.519
You meet people from all over the world, you get different types of equipment, different types of processes, different kinds of supply chains, just the variety of things that you can look into and the people you meet and work with is just astounding.
00:31:02.480 --> 00:31:03.039
Vince, what about you?
00:31:04.000 --> 00:31:06.960
Yeah, I would agree with Jim on the people.
00:31:06.960 --> 00:31:08.319
And I am in a ...
00:31:08.319 --> 00:31:14.799
I would say almost enviable position because I'm getting to meet so many new colleagues.
00:31:14.799 --> 00:31:22.880
I knew many before, but kind of the untapped resources that I have at my disposal is pretty amazing.
00:31:22.880 --> 00:31:29.519
And the people that I've met and their expertise is really jaw-dropping.
00:31:29.519 --> 00:31:45.119
And I'm so excited to work with them, getting to know them, getting to build on what they're already doing, and finding a way to continue to push for that maritime part in everything they do.
00:31:45.119 --> 00:31:53.680
But I would also say that what drives me is I love the maritime and ports field.
00:31:53.680 --> 00:32:01.839
I just always have seen it as a bit underrepresented in some of the work that I've done before.
00:32:01.839 --> 00:32:21.200
And I just think this is the time to really put it on the same level as when we talk about our roads and our rails and to talk about maritime and our ports and our waterways in the same vein, especially for those kind of port communities, our waterway communities.
00:32:21.200 --> 00:32:27.920
I think our operators deserve that, our ports deserve that, and our economy deserves that.
00:32:27.920 --> 00:32:32.400
And they need to be on even footing with the rest of our other modes.
00:32:32.400 --> 00:32:35.759
I'm a strong believer in that and continue to do that.
00:32:36.319 --> 00:32:38.960
The Center for Ports and Waterways has a very good future in front of it.
00:32:38.960 --> 00:32:41.200
I think Vince will do a great job with that.
00:32:41.759 --> 00:32:42.319
That's great.
00:32:42.319 --> 00:32:43.279
Well, thanks, guys.
00:32:43.279 --> 00:32:44.880
Thanks for being part of our podcast.
00:32:44.880 --> 00:32:45.920
I appreciate it.
00:32:46.160 --> 00:32:46.640
You're welcome.
00:32:46.960 --> 00:32:48.240
Thank you, Allan, for putting this together.
00:32:48.240 --> 00:32:51.119
Again, it's always a pleasure to be on any call with Jim.
00:32:51.119 --> 00:32:53.200
And I know he won't be a stranger at all...
00:32:53.200 --> 00:32:56.160
E xcited to talk about this together.
00:32:57.519 --> 00:33:01.200
A point of personal privilege to close our conversation today.
00:33:01.200 --> 00:33:08.400
In my nearly 12 years at TTI, I've had the pleasure of working with Jim Kruse on a number of research projects.
00:33:08.400 --> 00:33:18.640
And when we visited any Texas port, either the folks there already know him, or they can quickly size him up as someone who knows what he's talking about.
00:33:18.640 --> 00:33:26.160
Traveling together all over the state, I've had the chance to get to know Jim and can affirm that he is a genuinely good guy.
00:33:26.160 --> 00:33:33.200
It's been my honor to be his colleague, and I and all of TTI wish him fair winds and following seas.
00:33:33.200 --> 00:33:42.640
I know that Jim joins me in welcoming Vince into his new role, and we both look forward to new horizons for the center under his leadership.
00:33:42.640 --> 00:33:45.039
Thanks for listening.
00:33:45.039 --> 00:33:53.359
If you liked what you heard or learned something, please take just a minute to give us a review, subscribe, and share this episode.
00:33:53.359 --> 00:34:01.680
I invite you to join us next time for another conversation about getting ourselves and the stuff we need from point A to point B.
00:34:01.680 --> 00:34:11.679
Thinking Transportation is a production of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, a member of The Texas A&M University System.
00:34:11.679 --> 00:34:15.119
The show is edited and produced by Chris Pourteau.
00:34:15.119 --> 00:34:17.039
I'm your host, Allan Rutter.
00:34:17.039 --> 00:34:18.800
Thanks again for joining us.
00:34:18.800 --> 00:34:20.400
We'll see you next time.