The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has granted a federal permit authorizing construction of the Louisiana International Terminal, a major Port of New Orleans development intended to expand the Lower Mississippi River gateway's capacity for larger ships and growing cargo volumes.

Port NOLA announced the permit approval this week, calling the decision a key milestone for the proposed $1.8 billion greenfield terminal, which is expected to have capacity for 2 million container units at full build-out. Construction in navigable waters requires Corps authorization under federal law, making the permit a gating regulatory step for any new U.S. port project.

The project would be developed in partnership with Terminal Investment Limited, the terminal-operating arm of Geneva-based Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC), the world's largest container shipping line by capacity, and with terminal operator Ports America. The two partners are contributing more than $800 million toward development costs, and the terminal has received $300 million in federal grants.

Designed as a deepwater container facility, the Louisiana International Terminal will feature multimodal connections to interstate highways and the nation's Class I rail network. Port NOLA said the project would provide market access across more than 30 states and strengthen Louisiana's role in U.S. import and export supply chains.

Plans call for two berths accommodating two 16,000-container vessels, with water depth of 55 feet — among the deepest of U.S. ports. The port is targeting an opening in 2028 with initial annual capacity of 180,000-280,000 TEUs, with completion of the full development planned over a 25-year period.

The emphasis on deep water and bigger berths reflects the steady upsizing of container vessels over the past two decades, a trend that accelerated after the Panama Canal's 2016 expansion added locks wide enough for larger Neopanamax ships to transit directly between Asia and U.S. East and Gulf Coast ports. In the years since, East and Gulf Coast gateways have handled a growing share of U.S. container imports, and ports from Houston to New York have invested in deeper channels and larger ship-to-shore cranes to compete for that cargo.

The terminal is also intended to address a longstanding constraint on container operations upriver from the Gulf of Mexico. According to Port NOLA, ultra-large container vessels with capacities above 16,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) cannot pass beneath the Crescent City Connection bridge, which limits the ability of those ships to call at the port's existing New Orleans terminals.

By locating the new facility farther downriver, the LIT would enable direct calls by larger vessels while preserving a Mississippi River location near Gulf shipping lanes. Port NOLA characterized the project as the only new greenfield container port currently being developed in the United States. Elsewhere, MSC is building an all-new container berth at the Port of Baltimore on the site of a former steel mill, and TIL's U.S. holdings also include the Port Liberty terminals in New York and New Jersey, acquired from Global Container Terminals.

The project is expected to support Port NOLA's broader strategy of retaining and attracting cargo that might otherwise move through competing U.S. gateways, while expanding the port's ability to handle containerized imports and exports.

Combined Gulf Coast container traffic was roughly 5 million TEUs in 2025 across the principal mainland gateways of Houston, Mobile, New Orleans and Tampa. Houston reported 2025 throughput of 3.97 million TEUs. The port has access to all six North American Class I railroads through the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad.

Port NOLA cited an economic-impact analysis finding that its existing cargo activities already support more than $101 billion in nationwide economic value and more than 342,000 U.S. jobs, including more than 122,000 jobs in Louisiana.

Source: FreightWaves