Trying to keep up with stiffening competition, the Port of New Orleans wants to spend more than US$1 billion by 2020 to boost its container cargo capacity, expand cruise facilities and bounce back fully from Hurricane Katrina.
Under the plan, the port would spend $574.4 million through 2012, followed by another set of projects from 2013 to 2020 that would total $465.1 million.
The proposal comes as port officials say $11 billion in expansions and improvements are being proposed at competing ports, including nearly $4.7 billion at Houston and $1.7 billion at Tampa, Florida.
Of the total New Orleans plan, about $477.6 million would involve a two-phase expansion of the Napoleon Avenue terminal that can now handle about 366,000 containers annually.
The first expansion, costing $237.6 million, would add 194,000 containers to that capacity. The second expansion, set for 2013 and later, would cost $240 million and bring capacity to 1.3 million containers.
The initial expansion is on a list of funding proposals recently sent to Governor Bobby Jindal and the Legislature. Jindal has proposed $25 million in New Orleans port improvements to be considered during an upcoming special legislative session.
Port president Gary LaGrange said the expansion is needed to combat competition for the container business from the port at Mobile, Alabama, as well as East Coast ports such as Savannah, Georgia.
LaGrange said Impact Economics, a Boston consulting firm, projects that by 2010, Asia will be exporting 15 million more containers of goods than US ports can handle, a shortage that could lead to more shipments to Canadian ports.
For the cruise ship business, the port wants to spend $22.5 million to redevelop a wharf as a third cruise terminal and provide enclosed gangways. After 2012, the plan includes $40 million for another terminal.
The plan also calls for $25 million to build an intermodal rail facility by 2013 - one that can handle ocean freight containers transferred directly to rail cars.
The port also proposes spending $149 million to complete repairs of damage caused by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. The port says that work is being done as federal funds and insurance payments come in.
The report also cites another problem facing the port - the loss of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet to deep-draft ships. The outlet, blamed as a major source of flooding during Katrina, hasn't been dredged since 2005, leaving the port with the task of moving several businesses from the Industrial Canal area to spots along the Mississippi River.
The plan also says private-public partnerships are a potential method of financing major improvements, provided the port shares a portion of future revenue with private-sector participants.
"The Gulf of Mexico region is of particular interest to investors with the growth of South American trade and the future expansion of the Panama Canal," the plan states.
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