b'MARCH 22 - APRIL 4, 2021GULF COAST PORTS17A large shipment of steel arrives by rail at the Morgan City Harbor and Terminal Districts Port of Morgan City. (BOLSTERINGcontinued fromcoffers. The yard can now accommo-page 16) date as many as 2,000 forty-foot-long LA 1 improvement project. Port offi- containers at a time.cials note that the estimated total costMost recently, the Port of Greater of $445 million to complete highwayBaton Rouge completed in January a elevation pales in comparison to poten- $22 million railcar chambering yard tialmultibillion-dollarharmtothethatisexpeditingexportsofDrax nations gross domestic product shouldBiomass wood pellets. The expanded container yard at the Port of Greater Baton Rouges Inland Rivers Marine unelevated portions of LA 1 have to beP ort ofl aKeC harles Terminal supports Seacor AMH container-on-barge operations.closed, as was the case for more than 100 hours during 2020s storm season. Withrapidrecoveryfromdirectvolumesofoverdimensionalwindmore than double the amount in 2019.hits from Hurricane Laura and Hur- energycomponents,aswellasalu- Thehurricanesutterlydemol-P ort ofM organC ity ricane Delta, the Lake Charles Harbormina hydrate, bulk grains and lumber.ishedfivecustom-madeloadersand The top priority for the Morgan& Terminal Districts resilient Port ofThe ports number of imported wind(BOLSTERINGcontinued on CityHarborandTerminalDistrictsLake Charles is handling burgeoningenergyunitshandledin2020waspage 18)Port of Morgan City continues to be ensuringconsistentprovisionofa navigable20-foot-deep,400-foot-widechannel,assedimentbuildup has forced halts of import and export operations. Dredging efforts are get-ting a shot in the arm from $28 million infederalfunding,includingnearly $18.6 million announced in January, butexcessiveshoalingremainsan ongoing concern for the port, which islocatedattheconfluenceofthe Atchafalaya River and the Gulf Intra-coastal Waterway.Morgan City port officials also are focusingoneconomicdevelopment promotionaimedatbolsteringcargo tonnage throughput and upon benefi-cial use of dredged materials and other environmentally oriented pursuits.Rail activity at the Port of Morgan City is nonetheless robust, including withhandlingofsteelshipmentsto meet demands of industry infrastruc-ture projects in the region. Nearly $6 million in terminal facility improve-mentsareproceedingatthePortof MorganCity,withrailspurrepair work having been completed and East Dock expansion, to provide additional laydown space, on track to get started before midyear.P ort ofg reaterb atonr ougeThe successful public-private part-nershipbetweenthePortofGreater Baton Rouge and Seacor AMH is pro-ducingsteadilygrowingvolumesfor container-on-barge operations that began in 2016. The service takes empty barges downriverfromMemphistoseveral Louisiana petrochemical plants, where theyareloadedwithcontainersfilled with plastic pellets. The containers are then barged down the Mississippi River to New Orleans, where they are loaded onto oceangoing vessels for shipment to Europe, Asia and South America.Toaccommodategrowthofthe container-on-bargeservice,thePort of Greater Baton Rouge completed in mid-2020 a $5 million, 4-acre expan-sion of its Inland Rivers Marine Ter-minal, on a canal near the intersection of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and Mississippi River. Louisiana Depart-ment of Transportation and Develop-mentPortPriorityProgramfunding provided $3.4 million for the project, with the remainder coming from port'