Panama Canal Expansion Project Bringing More Growth to New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS - Dec. 17, 2013 - PRLog -- The nation of Panama is investing six billion dollars to widen and deepen the canal. The new and improved Panama Canal is scheduled to be in operation by April 2015 and will be able to accommodate ships as long as four football fields carrying 1,300 containers.

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“It’s definitely a game changer for the industry,” says Chief Operating Officer of the Port of Seattle.

The expansion will double the waterway’s capacity and channel more and larger ships to the gulf. It's is expected to double the container volume to the Port of New Orleans by the year 2028. 66% of the traffic from the Panama Canal flows to and from the U.S. and 12% of that comes from the gulf alone.

The Port of New Orleans is well prepared for the increase in volume. New Orleans already has the 2^nd largest container volume in the gulf. Improvements have been made to the Napoleon Avenue Container Terminal including; modern facilities, 2 new custom designed cranes, and five additional acres of marshaling yard where loaded containers are kept. The Napoleon Avenue Intermodal Railroad Improvement Project is a 20 million dollar modernization which is set to be completed in 2014. Plans are already in the works to double the capacity of the Port of New Orleans by 2020.