August 27th, 2026 – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has granted a federal permit authorizing construction of the Louisiana International Terminal, clearing a major regulatory hurdle for the Port of New Orleans’ plan to expand container capacity along the Lower Mississippi River.
The $1.8 billion greenfield terminal is expected to eventually handle up to 2 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) annually. Port NOLA is developing the project in partnership with Terminal Investment Limited, the terminal-operating arm of Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC), and Ports America. The private partners are contributing more than $800 million toward the development, while the project has also secured $300 million in federal grants.
Designed as a deepwater container facility, the Louisiana International Terminal will connect ocean cargo with interstate highways and North America’s Class I rail network. The port expects the expanded infrastructure to provide access to markets across more than 30 states while strengthening Louisiana’s position in U.S. import and export supply chains.
Plans include two berths capable of simultaneously accommodating two container ships with capacities of up to 16,000 TEUs. With a planned water depth of 55 feet, the facility would rank among the deepest container ports in the United States.
Port NOLA is targeting an initial opening in 2028, with annual capacity beginning at approximately 180,000 to 280,000 TEUs. The terminal would then be expanded in phases over a 25-year development period, eventually reaching its planned capacity of 2 million TEUs.
A key advantage of the project is its location farther downriver from existing New Orleans container terminals. Larger container vessels exceeding 16,000 TEUs are currently unable to pass beneath the Crescent City Connection bridge, creating a longstanding limitation on the size of ships that can access existing facilities upriver.
Locating the new terminal below the bridge would allow larger vessels to make direct calls while maintaining access to the Mississippi River and nearby Gulf shipping routes. Port NOLA has described the Louisiana International Terminal as the only new greenfield container port currently under development in the United States.
The project comes as MSC is also investing in additional U.S. port capacity, including construction of a new container berth at the Port of Baltimore on the site of a former steel mill.
For New Orleans, the new terminal is part of a broader strategy to retain existing cargo and attract additional volumes that could otherwise move through competing U.S. gateways. Gulf Coast container traffic has continued to grow, with the principal mainland gateways of Houston, Mobile, New Orleans and Tampa collectively handling roughly 5 million TEUs in 2025. Houston alone reported throughput of approximately 3.97 million TEUs during the year.
New Orleans also offers extensive rail connectivity through the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad, providing access to all six North American Class I railroads and expanding the terminal’s potential reach into inland markets.
Port NOLA estimates its existing cargo operations generate more than $101 billion in nationwide economic value and support more than 342,000 U.S. jobs. More than 122,000 of those jobs are located in Louisiana.
With the federal permit now secured, the Louisiana International Terminal moves another step closer to providing the Gulf Coast with additional deepwater container capacity and greater access for the larger vessels increasingly deployed across global shipping networks.
