The Port Isabel-San Benito Navigation District is getting an upgrade.

The nearly $2 million project will help boost economic development in Port Isabel. The expansion project will help create more jobs and allow for more cargo to come in and leave the port.

Officials are working to add more breasting dolphins, which are structures used to tie boats to the harbor.

"The number of dolphins that we had, originally, was not enough. We just built what we could afford 10 years ago, and now we're just trying to complete out what the project was," Port Director Steven Beardan said.

The project will take 14 months to complete. A groundbreaking date has yet to be set. 

Beardan says the added dolphin structures will allow more vessels to use the port. He hopes it will attract more businesses and allow the port to move more fuel.

"Bring fuel from Corpus Christi, Houston, New Orleans from the refineries down here, unload the fuel onto some of our tanks, while these trucks are sitting in this new area, waiting to load that fuel into those trucks going to Mexico," Beardan said.

More fuel ships means more tanker trucks, and for that, the port plans to build a new parking area. They'll convert three and a half anchors of open land into a parking lot.

The extra cargo will also allow them to hire more workers at the port. 

There are currently around 500 people working at the port, with this expansion they expect to double the number of workers.

"That's all we're trying to do is bring jobs to the area," Beardan said.

The upgrades are being paid for with the help of a $1.5 million grant from the United States Economic Development Administration.