A big Christmas present came in the form of a federal grant to The Port of New Orleans for expansion of shipping and receiving operations along the Mississippi River. A proposed facility funded partly by the grant would mean the opportunity for the Port of New Orleans to remain competitive in the logistics arena.
Brandi Christian President and CEO of the Port of New Orleans says that there has been one hinderance to port operations in New Orleans.
“We can only handle ships of a certain size because of the Crescent City Connection. Once a ship exceeds that, Louisiana loses that opportunity.”
Since the Crescent City Connection can't be raised, an alternative is building another container facility downriver where ships carrying a heavier load can continue moving goods through the region, that's where the grant comes in.
“If you don’t have a facility like this you can’t attract and retain logistics and retail businesses.”
The expansion of the port would mean about 18,000 new jobs in the area and an estimated 1B dollars in added tax revenue. A site is proposed in Violet, St. Bernard Parish for the new facility with an addition of about 4300 new jobs for that area alone.
The potential job creation and revenue windfall from the is a win-win according to Christian.
“When you look at the impact of the Louisiana International Terminal Project, the biggest opportunity will be growth around the industry and the potential for a new economy for the state.”
The project is approximately 1.8B dollars in total with an historic public-private partnership that will include Ports America and Mediterranean Shipping Company.
