Rendering of proposed Louisiana International Terminal (image courtesy of Port of New Orleans)
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers grants a federal permit for the construction of a $1.8 billion Louisiana International Terminal in Saint Bernard Parish. Port NOLA President and CEO Beth Branch says the facility will be able to handle massive container ships with 50-foot-drafts, which currently cannot pass to the Port of New Orleans, because the Crescent City Connection bridge is not high enough
“Where we operate today is on the other side, upriver, from the Crescent City Connection Bridge. That bridge has a height restriction when we have large container vessels coming into port,” Branch explained. “Today, the size of a container ship that comes upriver to our current location, they carry 7,000 containers on board. The new container terminal will be able to handle up to 24,000 containers.”
Branch says the new terminal will be a major game-changer for the Port of New Orleans and will transform the city and the region into a major logistics hub.
“New Orleans is so strategically located; being not just on the Mississippi River and all the connectivity that brings, but most importantly, there’s no other deepwater port in the entire country that’s served by all six national railroads,” Branch said.
The Louisiana International Terminal is a public-private investment project involving Port NOLA and Terminal Investment Limited. Governor Jeff Landry says this will cement Louisiana’s role as the nation’s gateway to global trade.
Construction is expected to take five years.
According to independent economic analysis, cargo activity through Port NOLA already supports more than $101 billion in total economic value nationwide and more than 342,000 American jobs, including over 122,000 in Louisiana alone. At full buildout, LIT is projected to add thousands of additional jobs and generate billions of dollars in new tax revenue across the country, reinforcing the terminal’s role as critical national infrastructure – not merely a regional project.
More information on the analysis can be found at www.portnolaimpact.com.
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