Port of New Orleans plans $1B expansion

Officials asking for money from state, federal agencies to meet increased ocean freight demand.

By Dave Hannon -- Purchasing, 3/7/2008 1:44:00 PM

Officials at the Port of New Orleans are looking for more than $1 billion from both public and private entities in an effort to expand the port and take advantage of the ever-growing number of ocean containers coming from Asia.

According to news reports, port officials have laid out a plan to spend $574.4 million through 2012, followed by another set of projects from 2013 to 2020 that would total $465.1 million. The centerpiece of the plan is the expansion of the Napoleon Avenue Container Terminal. According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Gov. Bobby Jindal asked the state legislature this week to dedicate about $28 million of the state's $1 billion budget surplus to the Port of New Orleans, the bulk of which—about $25 million, would go to building the second phase of the port's Napoleon Avenue terminal.

According to the Times-Picayune article, the Napoleon Avenue terminal’s four cranes can process annually about 360,000 20-foot long containers (TEUs). The expansion would allow the port to handle an additional 195,000 TEUs and an eventual third step, which would cost another $240 million, would boost the terminal's capacity to about 1.34 million TEUs each year.

Port director Gary LaGrange told reporters at a news conference that in addition to expanded trade from Asia and South America, the Port of New Orleans must be ready to receive an expected explosion of shipments coming through the newly expanded Panama Canal, which is expected to open a third lane in 2014. The plan also calls for $25 million to build an intermodal rail facility by 2013 to transfer containers direct from ships to rails.

"We need to keep up with our competition," LaGrange said, referring to other ports such as Miami, Houston and Mobile, Ala.