The Port of Galveston announced several projects to improve traffic flow in and around its cruise terminals, according to a press release.

“We’re taking best practices from Cruise Terminal 10, which opened in November 2022, and incorporating them at terminals 25 and 28,” said Galveston Wharves Port Director and CEO Rodger Rees.

“We’ll do the same as we plan the Cruise Terminal 16 complex set to open in late 2025.”

To help address the issue of onsite parking and reduce traffic on Harborside, the port is expanding its park-and-walk Express Lot adjacent to terminals 25 and 28. This will enable passengers to park and walk to their terminal instead of making two trips on Harborside if they’re dropping off luggage before they park and taking a shuttle bus to the terminal.

Additionally, terminal 16 will have a cruise parking garage and surface parking, both onsite.

“At terminals 25 and 28, we’re pulling up old rail lines and a fence to add traffic lanes on the south side of the terminal complex. We’ll also be trying a new traffic flow pattern to provide more queuing space for CT 25 and to move traffic more efficiently through the complex,” said Rees.

The port is also working with the cruise lines that these trucking companies that deliver food, beverages and other supplies to find ways to better manage this traffic.

Improvements at Cruise Terminal 16 will include a traffic impact analysis to determine how additional vehicles could impact traffic flow in and around the terminal. In addition to onsite parking and queuing lanes, cruise-related traffic will be able to use the port’s new internal roadway to the west of the terminal, Rees explained.