(The following story by Jaime Guillet appeared on the New Orleans City Business website on March 10.)
NEW ORLEANS — The Port of New Orleans plans to take advantage of its location at the axis of six chief railroads by expanding its on-dock rail facilities no later than 2012.
Containerized cargo improvements are the focal point of the Port of New Orleans $1-billion 2020 Master Plan, which encompasses short- and long-term infrastructure improvements to be made in the next 12 years.
To remain competitive, Port officials say infrastructure upgrades are needed to handle cargo.
“We believe that we still are ahead of the game considering that Napoleon Phase I has given us a foothold in the Gulf container trade,” said Chris Bonura, a Port spokesman. “However, in order to maintain that foothold, we know we need to grow and nurture the next phases of Napoleon.”
Expansion of the 20-acre Napoleon Avenue Container Terminal Complex tops the project lists.
Phase 2, which Port officials identify as the top short-term project, includes building a larger terminal, adding three container-handling cranes and expanding the container-bearing railroad infrastructure for $237.6 million.
Phase 2 would expand Port container capacity from 366,000 20-foot freight containers to 560,000.
A key component of the Phase 2 expansion is the $25-million relocation and expansion of the on-dock intermodal rail facility. Intermodal refers to multiple modes of transportation such as rail or truck. An intermodal rail facility essentially moves containers arriving by rail to the port to ships and vice versa.
Intermodal rail is one of the best ways to move containerized cargo, said Joe Accardo, executive director of the Ports Association of Louisiana, a nonprofit trade group representing more than 30 ports in the state.
“Expanding the role of their (intermodal rail) facility is a move greatly to their benefit in the future,” said Accardo. “There’s a need to move containers coming from the Panama Canal, South America and even Europe by rail to the Midwest. We need to take advantage (of rail) as vigorously as possible and the Port of New Orleans recognizes that.”
With energy prices at an all-time high, the Port wants to maximize its competitive advantage as a hub for six major freight railroads — Canadian National, CSX, Union Pacific, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, Norfolk Southern and Kansas City Southern — before competitors gain a greater advantage.
“Although the Intermodal Container Yard is still in its infancy, we see great potential, said Bonura. “The Intermodal Container Yard connects the Napoleon Avenue Container Terminal with inland markets both in Louisiana and in other states.
“By streamlining the transfer of containers from ship to rail or from rail to ship, we make it more convenient for shippers to use the Port of New Orleans. We also expand the number of customers who can get their cargo to and from the port in a timely manner.”
Alabama officials at the Port of Mobile recognize the advantages of intermodal rail, too. In 2002, the Alabama State Port Authority hired an engineering firm to help develop the Choctaw Point container facility, which includes an intermodal rail terminal. In December 2005, ASPA signed a $4.2-million contract with HDR Inc. to design and manage construction of the facility.
The Port of Mobile has access to five major rail lines, and the ASPA will open the first phase of the $300-million, 135-acre facility in the second half of 2008.
“New Orleans is an intermodal city,” said Billy App, CEO of Kenner-based freight forwarder J.W. Allen & Co. Inc. “We need to recognize the value of the railroads … and emphasize intermodal rail.”
App said the Port of New Orleans has lagged its competition, mainly because of too little state support until “only now with (Gov. Bobby) Jindal.”
“Containerized cargo has been the trend and it continues to grow every day,” said App. “Shame on us for allowing the Port of Mobile to get such a jump on us. If we don’t take immediate action to build the (container and intermodal) infrastructure, we’re going to be out of the game.”
Jindal proposed last week to provide $25 million from the $1-billion state budget surplus to develop the Napoleon Container Terminal, expanding terminal capacity by 45 percent, which Bonura termed “a start.”
The Port loads and unloads about 500 containers per week and expansion could easily triple that. The intermodal yard will take about six months to complete, said Bonura.
Challenges includes the impact of increased truck and rail traffic on Louisiana’s transportation infrastructure. That is why increased rail transportation is key, said Bonura.
“If the cargo doesn’t go out on rail, it’s going out on truck,” said Bonura. “Rail is more efficient because it gets cargo off the roads and also because of scale — you can move more on rail than on truck.”
He said the Port is engineering plans for handling increased traffic through the Napoleon facility.