Elzey Shares IHNC Update At GICA Seminar

Durund Elzey’s presentation came near the conclusion of this year’s Gulf Intracoastal Canal Association (GICA) annual seminar, and yet his topic was anything but an afterthought for operators on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. Elzey, deputy district engineer for the New Orleans District, said he’s optimistic about the future of the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal (IHNC) Lock Replacement project.

“I’m hesitant to say this, but given the long history of this particular project, we are in probably one of our best positions ever to have a plan that we’re in a position to move forward with, once approved,” he said.

The existing lock, which measures 640 feet by 75 feet with a depth of 31.5 feet, opened in 1923 and eclipsed the typical 50-year lifespan for locks and dams during President Richard Nixon’s administration. The lock was built in an era when deep-draft navigation was envisioned for New Orleans’ Industrial Canal and the nearby Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet (MR-GO). Demand for such a route never materialized, and the Corps decommissioned the MR-GO after Hurricane Katrina, thus removing any need for a replacement lock to accommodate deep-draft vessels.

When the New Orleans District published its draft supplemental general reevaluation report (GRR) and integrated supplemental environmental impact statement (EIS) for the replacement project in June, the plan called for a new shallow-draft chamber measuring 900 feet by 110 feet with a depth of 22 feet.

The New Orleans District held a public meeting in the community adjacent to the lock on June 28, and the public comment period for the project runs through September 2. A final report, draft director’s report and formal record of decision will follow this fall. The New Orleans District will then submit its final report to Corps headquarters toward the end of the year. If the project is approved, the district expects a signed director’s report and record of decision sometime around March next year.

Just a day before he spoke at the GICA Seminar, Elzey gave a tour of the existing lock to representatives from the office of the assistant secretary of the Amy, Corps headquarters staff and representatives from the Office of Management and Budget, “all focusing on understanding the importance of delivering this key infrastructure,” he said.

“This is the only lock on the east side of the Mississippi River,” Elzey said.

The August 7 tour also made visits to other structures in the region, including Bayou Sorrel Lock on the GIWW alternate route between Morgan City, La., and Baton Rouge, La., on the west bank of the Mississippi River.

Elzey emphasized the importance of the June 28 community meeting and the value of hearing from area residents, who voiced concerns about traffic and construction noise and called on the Corps to invest in the area prior to the lock coming online. The district took a different approach to that community meeting, hosting a day-long open house, providing court reporters on site to record comments and having 40 members of the New Orleans District present to interact with residents.

“We are a learning organization, we’re revising our trust, and I think this went a long way to build another level of trust in the community, which is vitally important,” Elzey said.

While waterway stakeholders and residents will only have to wait six months or so for a signed director’s report, the rest of the project delivery timeline is decades long. According to Elzey’s presentation, the earliest the design phase for a new IHNC Lock could start is 2029, with the earliest construction start arriving five years later in 2034. Assuming adequate funding, materials and labor, the earliest the lock could be completed is 2048. In years one and two of the construction phase, the Corps would build a bypass channel and cofferdam. Year three would see the cofferdam dewatered. Lock chamber and gate bay construction would take place in years four through nine, with the chamber completed and the cofferdam removed and backfilled in years nine and 10. Years 10 through 14 would involve the replacement of the St. Claude Avenue Bridge, near the river-side mouth of the existing lock, demolition of the old lock and construction of guidewalls and and dolphins.

The “total first cost” for the project is $4.7 billion, with a benefit to cost ratio of 1.03 to 1.

Speaking to the benefit to cost ratio, Vaughn McDaniel, operations manager for LeBeouf Bros. Towing, urged the Corps to find a way to consider more than just current cargoes moving through the existing IHNC Lock when calculating the benefits of the new lock to the nation.

“There’s always growth potential on the east side, especially on the Tenn-Tom [Waterway] and the Black Warrior [River],” McDaniel said. “There’s plenty of grown potential you may not be capturing.”

McDaniel also noted that Congress initially approved replacing the existing lock in the mid-1950s. If the Corps achieves the current timeline for IHNC, the new lock would come online more than 90 years later. What’s more, under that same timeline, the project would wrap up 125 years after the original IHNC Lock opened to navigation.

“We’re better than this, right?” he said, adding, “This lock needs to be replaced, and we’ve got to get this moving down the tracks.”