A project to deepen the Mississippi River from its mouth to the Huey P Long Bridge in New Orleans is now complete. The river is 50-feet deep in that area, instead of 45. Big River Coalition director Sean Duffy says the project will mean more high-capacity traffic will come up the river
“You can haul more cargo on a vessel. We have vessels that come into the river that are capable of going to a 50-foot draft already. But the channel wasn’t open for 50 feet,” said Duffy.
Duffy has been working to get the river deepened for about ten years. He helped convince the Governor to invest and $80-million match of federal funds for the $250-million deepening. He says the first two ships to navigate at a 50-foot draft went down the river from New Orleans within the past 10 days…
“Both were coal export vessels, taking a record amount of cargo out of the river. Imported cargo will come…”
Duffy says he and other river stakeholders will now work to deepen the river all the way to the Port of Baton Rouge in the years ahead. He says the Mississippi leads to two of the nation’s largest river ports, and keeping commercial traffic flowing is key to the state’s economy…:
“The river is a key piece of our nation’s infrastructure; not just the one-in-five jobs in the state of Louisiana that flow through that river system.”
Comments