NOLA Harbor Leaders Discuss Anchorage Changes
Members of the Greater New Orleans Port Safety Council’s Harbor Safety Committee met July 10 at the Port of New Orleans administration building to, among other things, hear a presentation on the proposed changes to the region’s deep-draft anchorages that could come as a result of the port’s planned Louisiana International Terminal (LIT) project.
Anthony Evett, chief engineer and vice president of infrastructure for Port NOLA, explained to the group that, as LIT is built in phases, the berths at the terminal, which will be located on the left descending bank in the lower St. Bernard Parish community of Violet, will increasingly impact Lower 9 Mile Anchorage directly across the river.
The Port of New Orleans is in the midst of the permitting and environmental review process for the terminal, which will cover about 400 acres of the 1,200-acre property the port already owns. The port expects the environmental review and permitting phase to wrap up next year, with the first phase of the terminal opening for business in 2028. That first phase will have a throughput capacity of between 180,000 and 280,000 containers. Port NOLA estimates the terminal could grow to a capacity of 1.2 million containers (or 2 million TEU) over the course of up to 25 years.
Ultimately, that will mean a ship capacity loss of four anchorages at the southernmost end of Lower 9 Mile Anchorage. The reason is simple: larger container ships calling on the new terminal won’t have room to turn around if ships are anchored in that stretch of Lower 9 Mile Anchorage.
However, working in coordination with the Crescent River Port Pilots’ Association, which guides ships between Head of Passes at Mile 0 and the New Orleans harbor, and the U.S. Coast Guard, the Port of New Orleans is proposing a reconfiguration of the anchorages below New Orleans.
The changes would actually create four new anchorages and increase ship capacity by 16.
The proposed reconfiguration would create four new anchorages and extend 10 existing anchorages. While Lower 9 Mile Anchorage would lose four spots, a newly formed Lower 9 Mile Emergency Anchorage would take its place. In emergencies, like ahead of a hurricane, when no vessels would be at the new container terminal, the Coast Guard would be able to activate the emergency anchorage. Other anchorage gains in the proposal include two at a new emergency anchorage at Bertrandville, three at Port Sulphur, two at a new emergency anchorage at 60 Mile Point, and three at a new anchorage at Point Pleasant.
Evett said that the anchorage change proposal will have to go through a lengthy review in the Federal Register which could take two years.
Also at the Harbor Safety Committee meeting, members heard from representatives of the Associated Branch Pilots (Bar Pilots), which direct ships from offshore up to Pilottown. Pilottown Anchorage, which stretches 5.2 miles on the left descending bank, is the only anchorage available to the Bar Pilots, yet that anchorage is almost totally silted in. Representatives of the Bar Pilots described it as an extreme safety hazard and a threat to navigation, calling on the Corps of Engineers to dredge the anchorage.
