EPA awards $1 million to New Orleans container port project

The Port of New Orleans announced Monday that it was awarded $1 million from the Environmental Protection Agency for its Louisiana International Terminal (LIT) Sustainability Management Plan (SMP).

The $1.8 billion LIT will be located along the Mississippi River on 400 acres in Violet, St. Bernard Parish. That’s 17 miles downstream from the Crescent City Connection bridge, whose air draft limits the size of container ships calling New Orleans. The new port is designed to accommodate New Panamax ships of 14,000 twenty-foot equivalent units, the largest to transit the Panama Canal, with initial capacity of 180,000 to 280,000 TEUs, and eventual buildout handling volume of 2 million TEUs.

The project is expected to grow the port’s import and export business and open up intermodal and container-on-barge services. The plan envisions a reach up the Mississippi to 14,500 miles of inland waterways in 31 states, potentially connecting more than 30 hubs including Dallas, Chicago, Memphis, Tennessee, and Canada.

“The Louisiana International Terminal represents economic growth and a commitment to environmental stewardship and workforce development that will benefit Violet, St. Bernard Parish and the entire state,” said Rep. Troy A. Carter Sr., of Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District, in a release.

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