Green Articles
Port to unveil $1B master plan
by Jaime Guillet : City Business New Orleans : March 5, 2008
NEW ORLEANS — The Port of New Orleans will unveil its $1.04-billion 2020 master plan, which includes an outline of proposed long- and short-term infrastructure improvements, on Thursday.
For the past five months, Port President and CEO Gary LaGrange has been alluding to the coming of a master plan outlining the Port’s fight to stay competitive with other ports that are revving up capital improvements to meet maritime trends.
Total estimates are $574.3 million for short-term projects and $465.1 million for long-term projects.
Short-term projects are infrastructure projects begun between 2008 and 2012. These projects identify “new opportunities to grow its container cargo, breakbulk cargo and cruise business,” said Chris Bonura, a Port spokesman.
“To do so, the Port will need to invest $1 billion in its facilities before 2020,” Bonura said.
At the top of both the long- and short-term projects lists is expansion of the Napoleon Avenue Container Terminal Complex, located on the East Bank of the Mississippi River. Phase 2, which port officials identify as the top short-term project, includes actual expansion of the terminal, the addition of three container-handling cranes and expansion of the container-bearing railroad infrastructure for a total $237.6 million. Phase 2 would expand the Port’s container capacity from its current capacity of 366,000 20-foot equivalent units, or TEUs, to 560,000 TEUs.
Phase 3, the long-term, $240-million expansion of the Napoleon Avenue terminal would create a total TEU capacity of 1.36 million.
The Port’s plan consistently cites the growing global trend of containerized cargo. It cites London-based maritime adviser Drewry Shipping Consultant Ltd.’s estimate that containerized cargo “currently makes up more than 70 percent of the value of seaborne trade,” or “346,000 container shipments (TEUs) daily.” The Port’s two tenants who share access of Napoleon Avenue are Ceres Terminals Inc., based in East Brunswick, N.J., and Ports America Inc., based in Iselin, N.J. Those two companies handled a total 315,000 containers in 2007 nearly at capacity, said Bonura.
The master plan also identifies the Port’s other major issue, the continued loss of tenants in its eastern New Orleans property, which includes the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet and the Inner Harbor Navigational Canal - typically referred to as the Industrial Canal - following damage from Hurricane Katrina.
But the biggest damage resulted from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s decision to halt dredging of the MRGO for deep-draft access. Port officials estimate relocation costs for the remaining businesses at $150 million, and they are also left with upgrading the facilities still available on the East Bank.
The Port also wants to make $64.5 million in river terminal improvements in the short term, including construction of the new New Orleans Cold Storage facility, and $22.5 million in cruise terminal improvements. Bonura said these improvements are “realistic,” particularly compared with the vast money being poured into the Port’s competitors like the Port of Mobile — a total $10.2 billion in the Southeastern region alone.
The Port’s plan also seriously counts expanding facilities to the West Bank.