With a 10-year extension of its lease, New Orleans Terminal is forging ahead to efficiently move burgeoning container volumes with leading-edge infrastructure and technology.

“Extending our lease at the Port of New Orleans’ Napoleon Avenue complex underscores our commitment to consistently providing highly productive operations while focusing on safety and environmental consciousness,” said Kristopher Calkins, general manager of New Orleans Terminal LLC, a joint venture of Terminal Investment Ltd. (TIL) and Ceres Terminals Inc. “Enhancements are being advanced to accommodate growth for the coming decade and beyond.”

With enhanced infrastructure and technology, New Orleans Terminal efficiently handles growing volumes from increasingly large containerships.
With enhanced infrastructure and technology, New Orleans Terminal efficiently handles growing volumes from increasingly large containerships.

Port NOLA’s $100 million-plus investment in the Napoleon Avenue complex, including adding four new ship-to-shore gantries for June delivery, aims to nearly double the terminal’s yearly throughput capability to 1.5 million 20-foot-equivalent units, while deepening of the Mississippi River Ship Channel bodes to deliver 50-foot draft.

“New Orleans Terminal looks to provide faster turnaround times for vessels and trucks alike, with increased ability to productively handle larger, wider vessels,” Calkins said.

The terminal already is working containerships with capacities of as many as 9,200 TEUs, and, in late February, New Orleans Terminal discharged a North American record of 2,368 containers of Mediterranean Shipping Co. and Maersk from a single vessel.

Newly implemented enhanced RFID technology for truck drivers and addition of two more outbound truck lanes, bringing the number of outbound and inbound lanes to five apiece, are among upgrades that should yield even swifter turn times for trucks, which already, on average, complete a dual move in 50 minutes.

New Orleans Terminal features two on-dock warehouses with a total of 300,000 square feet for handling container transloads; two rubber-tired gantries; and plug-in capacity for more than 600 refrigerated containers at a time. And New Orleans Terminal handles all Port NOLA on-dock rail activity, accessing multiple Class I railroads via the port-owned short line.

In addition to dedication to providing a safe work environment, New Orleans Terminal is committed to sustainable practices, as embodied by its certified participation since 2017 in the Green Marine voluntary environmental program for North America’s maritime industry.