Breaking the Freight Bottlenecks for the Expanded Panama CanalThe effectiveness and efficiency of a marine port is closely tied to the performance and capacity of the landside transportation network that moves goods to and from ships. The expanded Panama Canal, designed to handle significantly larger ships, will challenge U.S. Atlantic and Gulf ports with those larger ships and the resulting higher rate of flow of products in and out of ports. Assuring sufficient landside capacity is a task shared by the private sector (both railroad companies and intermodal terminal operators) and governments responsible for the highway network. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has formed a stakeholder group to identify and address the needs of shippers, carriers, and ports along the Texas Gulf Coast. TxDOT has been investing in expanded roadway infrastructure to ease key bottlenecks, particularly those affecting the major port of Houston. In this discussion, Professor Schofer explores some key activities of TxDOT with Caroline Mays, Freight Systems Branch Manager for TxDOT