Safety Zone; Beltway 8 Bridge Construction, Houston Ship Channel, Houston, TX

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY <SUBAGY>Coast Guard</SUBAGY> <CFR>33 CFR Part 165</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket Number USCG-2025-0643]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1625-AA00</RIN> <SUBJECT>Safety Zone; Beltway 8 Bridge Construction, Houston Ship Channel, Houston, TX</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Temporary final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary safety zone for certain navigable waters of the Houston Ship Channel around the Beltway 8 Bridge (Sam Houston Tollway Ship Channel Bridge), during bridge construction and demolition activities. The temporary safety zone is needed to protect personnel, vessels, and the marine environment from potential hazards created by constructing a new bridge. Entry of vessels or persons into this zone is prohibited unless specifically authorized by the Captain of the Port, Sector Houston-Galveston. </SUM> <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This rule is effective without actual notice from December 29, 2025 through March 1, 2030. For the purposes of enforcement, actual notice will be used from December 22, 2025, until December 29, 2025. </DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> To view available documents go to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> and search for USCG-2025-0643. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> If you have questions about this rule, contact Marine Science Technician Chief Petty Officer Anthony W. Booth, Sector Houston-Galveston Waterway Management Division, Coast Guard; Telephone (713) 398-5823, Email <E T="03">houstonwwm@uscg.mil.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Table of Abbreviations</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">BNM Broadcast Notice to Mariners</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">CFR Code of Federal Regulations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">CG Coast Guard</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">COTP Captain of the Port</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">DHS Department of Homeland Security</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">FR Federal Register</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">LNM Local Notice to Mariners</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">NPRM Notice of proposed rulemaking</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">§ Section </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">U.S.C. United States Code</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">VTS Vessel Traffic Service</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Background and Authority</HD> On July 24, 2025, construction of the new Beltway 8 Bridge (Sam Houston Tollway Ship Channel Bridge) started over the navigable waters of the Houston Ship Channel. The Coast Guard previously published a short-term temporary safety zone to cover the initial phase of this construction, which covers only a small area along the north and south shorelines around the bridge (90 FR 35437, July 28, 2025). The Coast Guard also published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to establish a long-term temporary safety zone for this project (90 FR 43950, September 11, 2025). In that NPRM, we stated why we issued the NPRM and invited comments on our proposed regulatory action. Under the authority in 46 U.S.C. 70034, the COTP has determined that this rule is necessary to protect personnel, vessels, and the marine environment from potential hazards associated with this bridge demolition and construction project. Hazards associated with this project include falling construction equipment, materials, or other debris. No vessel or person will be permitted to enter the safety zone without obtaining permission from the COTP or their designated representative during periods of enforcement. The Coast Guard finds that under 5 U.S.C. 553(d)(3), good cause exists for making this rule effective less than 30 days after publication in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> because it is impracticable and contrary to the public interest. Construction for this project has begun, impacts to the waterway are on-going, and the previously established short-term safety zone regulation has expired. Therefore, this zone must be established immediately to protect personnel, vessels, and the marine environment. <HD SOURCE="HD1">III. Discussion of Comments and the Rule</HD> During the comment period that ended on October 14, 2025, we received one comment. The comment supported the safety zone and encouraged the Coast Guard to elaborate on timing for closure of the federal channel to improve coordination and to assist affected users with preparation for the closure. Due to the length of the project and complexity and uncertainty regarding the project schedule, the Coast Guard is unable to provide this detailed information at this time. However, the Coast Guard will work closely with the project managers to ensure the public and waterway users are notified well in advance of any closure that will prohibit vessel navigation on the waterway. The Coast Guard will provide advance notice to the public through Broadcast Notices to Mariners (BNMs), Local Notices to Mariners (LNMs), and the Vessel Traffic Service (VTS). The Coast Guard is also making two clarifying changes to the regulatory text. In paragraph (c)(1), the phrase “while overhead bridge construction or demolition activities are occurring” has been deleted. Also in paragraph (d), the sentence “[t]hat date should include some margin for error in case of delays[,]” was also deleted. Although not requested or commented upon, the Coast Guard believes these changes in the regulatory text will prevent potential confusion regarding times when the safety zone is activated. As written now, the regulatory text clearly states that Coast Guard will provide advance notice to the public of the specific enforcement times and areas within the zone, which will depend on construction or demolition activities. There are no other changes in the regulatory text of this rule from the proposed rule in the NPRM. This rule establishes a safety zone from December 22, 2025 through March 1, 2030. That date should include some margin for error in case of delays. Specific enforcement times and areas within the zone will depend on construction or demolition activities. The safety zone covers all navigable waters within the area encompassed by a line connecting the following points on the north and south shore of the Houston Ship Channel around the Beltway 8 Bridge (Sam Houston Tollway Ship Channel Bridge): Point 1 is the southeast corner at 29°44.033′ N 95°8.733′ W; thence west to Point 2 at 29°44.100′ N 95°8.833′ W; thence north to Point 3 at 29°44.267′ N 95°8.817′ W; thence east to Point 4 at 29°44.267′ N 95°8.717′ W; thence south returning to Point 1. No vessel or person is permitted to enter the safety zone without obtaining permission from the COTP or their designated representative. <HD SOURCE="HD1">IV. Regulatory Analyses</HD> We developed this rule after considering numerous statutes and Executive orders related to rulemaking. Below we summarize our analyses based on a number of these statutes and Executive orders. <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Impact on Small Entities</HD> The Coast Guard certifies that, although some small entities may intend to transit the safety zone above, this rule will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities, as mandated by the Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980, 5 U.S.C. 601-612 for the following reasons. During the times of overhead construction outside of the federal channel, vessels will still be allowed to transit under the bridge only within the federal channel. The channel will be closed for a short period when the construction or demolition is actively occurring over the main federal channel, and these closures will be coordinated between stakeholders, the construction contractor and Sector Houston-Galveston. The Coast Guard will work closely with the project managers to ensure the public and waterway users are notified well in advance of any closure that will prohibit vessel navigation on the main federal channel. While this zone will be in effect for several years, the Coast Guard (CG) anticipates that the main federal channel will remain open for the majority of the effective period. Under section 213(a) of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 (Pub. L. 104-121), if this rule will affect your small business, organization, or governmental jurisdiction and you have questions, contact the person listed in the <E T="02">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT</E> section. Small businesses may send comments to the Small Business and Agriculture Regulatory Enforcement Ombudsman and the Regional Small Business Regulatory Fairness Boards by calling 1-888-REG-FAIR (1-888-734-3247). <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. Collection of Information</HD> This rule will not call for a new collection of information under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520). <HD SOURCE="HD2">C. Federalism and Indian Tribal Governments</HD> We have analyzed this rule under Executive Order 13132, Federalism, and have determined that it is consistent with the fundamental federalism principles and preemption requirements described in that Order. Also, this rule does not have tribal implications under Executive Order 13175, Consultation and Coordination with Indian Tribal Governments, because it does not have a substantial direct effect on one or more Indian tribes, on the relationship between the Federal Government and Indian tribes, or on the distribution of power and responsibilities between the Federal Government and Indian tribes. <HD SOURCE="HD2">D. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act</HD> As required by The Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1531-1538), the Coast Guard certifies that this rule will not result in an annual expenditure of $100,000,000 or more (adjusted for inflation) by a State, local, or tribal government, in the aggregate, or by the private sector. <HD SOURCE="HD2">E. E ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 14k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━