Momentum Builds For New Port NOLA Terminal

With the New Orleans Engineer District expected to render a decision this summer on the Port of New Orleans’ proposal to build a new container terminal in Violet, La., in St. Bernard Parish, momentum for the project at the state level appears to be building.

Since becoming Louisiana’s governor in January 2024, Jeff Landry has supported the concept of a new container terminal downriver of the Crescent City Connection bridge in New Orleans, while also avoiding taking sides between the Port of New Orleans’ proposed Louisiana International Terminal in Violet and the Plaquemines Port, Harbor and Terminal District’s competing scheme for a new facility 50 miles farther downriver. At present, the only container terminal on the Lower Mississippi River is the Port of New Orleans’ Napoleon Avenue terminal, but the Crescent City Connection bridge limits the size of container ships that can pass underneath.

Landry’s reticence to embrace one of the two projects seems to have passed, with the governor embracing the Port of New Orleans’ project, which is being branded as the Louisiana International Terminal (LIT). Landry sent a letter April 29 to the executive committee of Greater New Orleans Inc., the leading economic development group for the region, informing the committee of his desire to appoint Michael Hecht, president and CEO of GNO Inc., to help make LIT a reality. Hecht most recently led preparations for New Orleans to host Super Bowl LIX.

“Coming off of this success, I am returning to GNO Inc. with another project critical to our state: the Louisiana International Terminal (LIT),” Landry wrote. “Successful execution of LIT is essential to the future of trade in Louisiana, the very reason we were founded.”

Landry said he was specifically requesting the executive committee to commit “Michael and the GNO Inc. team to coordinating and leading the effort to ensure the quick and successful start to the construction of LIT.”

Landry said the request doesn’t represent a lack of confidence in the leadership of the Port of New Orleans to execute the project.

“Rather, just as with the Super Bowl, LIT has many stakeholders, and a neutral third party, working for the best interests of Louisiana, may be helpful in order to expedite progress,” Landry wrote.

Landry offered three reasons why GNO Inc. makes sense as that “neutral third party.” He described LIT as a “truly regional project” and highlighted GNO Inc.’s support of LIT as “an essential economic development project.” Third, Landry said the success of Super Bowl LIX demonstrated “Michael and GNO Inc.’s ability to manage and execute large, complex projects with multiple key stakeholders.”

The letter from Landry came a little under a year after Brandy Christian, the Port of New Orleans’ former president and CEO, left that role and about five months into Beth Ann Branch’s tenure as the port’s chief executive. Landry also penned the letter less than a month ahead of a public hearing the New Orleans District plans to hold to field comments from the Violet community on the project.

That hearing will be held May 27 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Val Reiss Recreation Complex in Chalmette, La.

“The purpose of the hearing is to acquire information or evidence which will be considered in evaluating the permit application and to afford the public with an opportunity to present their views, opinions and information on such permit action,” the district stated in announcing the hearing.

Less than two weeks ahead of the hearing, Amanda Coates, chief commercial officer for the Port of New Orleans, sent a “call to action” email May 15 to encourage supporters of LIT to attend the hearing and submit comments by the June 6 deadline.

“The importance of the Louisiana International Terminal project for our region and maritime industry cannot be overstated,” Coates wrote. “As vessels calling the U.S. Gulf continue to increase in size, Louisiana critically needs a terminal that will position the region for growth for decades to come.”

The Port of New Orleans proposes to build LIT in what’s now a mostly vacant field that stretches between St. Bernard Highway, which runs alongside the river levee, and Judge Perez Drive to the east. The phased construction of the terminal will require relocation of a school. Plans originally called for rerouting St. Bernard Highway, but the port altered the layout in response to community concerns to keep the road largely along the same course.

Besides the industrial development and footprint of the proposed terminal, the threat of truck traffic has garnered the most objections within the parish. To counter that, the port and the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development have collaborated on a plan to build a new, elevated bypass road through St. Bernard Parish’s “central wetlands” to connect the terminal directly to I-10.

The Louisiana House Committee on Transportation, Highways and Public Works heard testimony May 12 both for and against a bill in support of the proposed terminal and bypass road. The committee voted 10-3 to send the bill to the full House, which is scheduled to debate the measure May 19.

Featured image caption: An illustration of the proposed layout of the Louisiana International Terminal, planned for Violet, La., on the Lower Mississippi River.