New Orleans District - Public Affairs Office - Corps Projects in Lousiana, Mississippi River, Flood Control, Hurricane Protection

PURPOSE. Replace the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal (Industrial Canal) Lock with a larger, modern lock because the existing lock is too small and congested, causing delays to traffic, which is primarily inland navigation such as barges and towboats.

LOCATION. In New Orleans on the Industrial Canal at the Mississippi River. The lock links the eastbound Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW) to the Mississippi River, and thence to the westbound Gulf Intracoastal Waterway through the nearby Algiers and Harvey locks in the New Orleans area.

SPONSORS. The federal government (Corps of Engineers and Inland Waterways Trust Fund) is responsible for the inland (shallow-draft) navigation portion of the project. The Port of New Orleans and the federal government are sharing the costs of the deep-draft navigation portion, as described below.

AUTHORIZATION. The Industrial Canal Lock Replacement Project is authorized by the River and Harbor Act of 1956 (PL 84-455) and the Water Resources Development Acts of 1986 (PL 99-662), which reauthorized the project and established cost-sharing requirements, and 1996 (PL 104-303), which authorized the Community Impact Mitigation Plan.

ISSUES. The current lock, placed in service in 1921, is too small to accommodate the existing traffic: 640 feet long, 75 feet wide and 31.5 feet deep. The average delay to navigation is 11 hours, but can be as much as 24 to 36 hours on many occasions. A highly urbanized area surrounds the lock on both sides of the canal. The canal can't be shut down for long periods of time without major impact to the navigation industry.

STATUS. Construction is well underway for demolition and environmental restoration of abandoned industrial sites on the east side of the canal adjacent to the new lock’s future location. The contractor, Washington Group, has demolished all of the aboveground structures. Underground structures and canal-side obstructions are now being removed. The contract is scheduled for completion in March 2005. A second construction contract, for demolition of the Galvez Street Wharf, was awarded to Virginia Wrecking Co. in April 2001 and completed in February 2003. After wharf demolition, nine mooring buoys were emplaced to protect the exposed bank line and enhance navigation. A third contract, pending funding, will be for construction of a levee/floodwall along the west side of the canal from St. Claude Avenue to the Mississippi River.

A contract for the design of the lock and appurtenant features was awarded to URS Corp. in May 2002. Work on the contract began in February 2003.

The real estate was purchased from the Port of New Orleans for $16.8 million. The final act of sale took place Dec. 19, 2002.

FUNDING. For fiscal year 2005, the President’s budget is $10 million, and our capability is $24 million.

COMMUNITY IMPACT MITIGATION PLAN. Construction will impact nationally registered historic districts, community cohesion and aesthetics, traffic, and businesses in the area, but no residences will be relocated. This is the basis for the $40 million Community Impact Mitigation Plan, which was authorized by Congress in the Water Resources Development Act of 1996. The mitigation plan includes, but is not limited to, police protection, job training, reimbursement of business’ lost revenue, street improvements, housing revitalization program, educational enhancements, parks and playgrounds, historical/cultural markers and displays, and emergency medical services. Work with various neighborhood organizations and individuals identified these items over a number of years.

The Corps awarded a contract on September 1999 to a team of consultants headed by GCR & Associates (other members are Metro-Source LLC, University of New Orleans College of Urban Affairs and Habitat for Humanity) to establish a community-based committee. This is a multi-year contract and will continue to involve the public in the implementation of the mitigation plan. The team has set up the community-based committee, executed a partnering agreement, and began the regular meetings in early March 2000. A needs assessment and a proposed mitigation plan for the first three years of construction was completed in July 2000, which has now been updated to July 2003. The Corps is at present developing implementation strategies for the recommendations. The Committee will continue to meet to update and refine its recommendations.

For the first mitigation project, the Corps awarded a contract for a job-training program, which was set-aside for a Historically Black College/University, to Xavier University in August 2000. This contract was geared to job-readiness and basic construction skills and two classes have graduated from the program. A separate job-training contract focusing on specific construction skills was awarded to Nunez Community College in December 2002. Three classes have graduated from this program, in either electrical construction or welding.

We negotiated a partnering agreement in April 2004 with the Friends of NORD (New Orleans Recreation Department) for improvements to playgrounds in the impacted area. Under an agreement with the New Orleans Police Department, more police officers began patrols in the Lower 9th Ward in May 2003. Communication systems at the bridges crossing the Industrial Canal and at the existing lock have been installed to allow police and emergency medical vehicles to contact the bridges and lock for status reports on openings.

BRIDGES VS. TUNNELS. Residents of St. Bernard Parish have expressed serious concerns with the proposed bridges at St. Claude and North Claiborne avenues. We have recommended replacement in kind for these crossings. The St. Bernard residents disagree with the impacts that were identified in the Corps Evaluation Report. The report’s analysis concluded that the bridges would have to be raised fewer times with the new lock than with the present one, but the duration of the openings would be slightly longer. The analysis also concluded that the total time of each day’s openings would be shorter. An analysis by St. Bernard residents predicted increased durations and increased openings. The St. Bernard residents have requested, through the Congressional delegation, that we investigate the use of tunnels and higher bridges at these locations. We had studied higher bridges (high-rise, fixed span) at both of these locations previously and had determined that they would have significant impacts to the neighborhoods along the canal. In addition, any higher bridge, even a mid-rise, at St. Claude Avenue would have impacts to the nationally recognized historic districts on both sides of the canal. However, the Corps had not investigated a mid-rise bridge at North Claiborne Avenue. This alternative may not cause the significant impacts that the high-rise alternatives were expected to cause. Therefore, we have awarded a contract to Modjeski & Masters for studies of a mid-rise bridge at this location. This bridge would be a higher mid-rise bridge than the existing one and provide more vertical clearance under the bridge than what was proposed previously, a replacement-in-kind bridge.

We contracted with URS Corp. to investigate the feasibility and costs of tunnels at each crossing. URS determined that tunnel construction in this area is feasible, but identified many impacts to surrounding areas and determined that the costs of tunnels would be $150 million to $200 million more than the bridges proposed. The study was completed in December 2001 at a cost of $170,000. The Corps is performing in-house studies on the real estate, utility relocation, operation and maintenance, and mitigation costs associated with the tunnel alternatives. In addition, we are developing the benefits to the vehicular and navigation traffic associated with the fewer delays resulting from tunnels.

The Corps is working with the New Orleans Regional Planning Commission, which has traffic models of the area, to update our traffic data. We are also working with the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development and the Port of New Orleans, the owners of the two bridges, and the navigation interests in the area on this issue. The New Orleans District is also working with the Corps’ Engineering Research and Development Center (formerly the Waterways Experiment Station) on physical and computer simulation models to study the issue.

U.S.

COAST GUARD RELOCATION. The U.S. Coast Guard has made a decision on the site for the relocation of their facilities adjacent to the existing lock. In 2004, a Project Proposal Report to relocate the Coast Guard to the NASA/Michoud site in eastern New Orleans will be initiated.

EXISTING TONNAGE. Traffic volume through the existing lock has taken a decline recently. We are working with the Port of New Orleans and other navigation interests to determine the reasons for this decline.

Congress approved the project as a “Construction New-Start” in fiscal year 1999.The recommended plan is for a deep draft lock, 110 feet wide by 1,200 feet long by 36 feet of draft. It is estimated to cost $672 million in current dollars. The cost of a lock sized just for inland navigation (110 feet wide by 900 feet long by 22 feet deep) is $540 million. The latter cost will be cost shared 50-50 between the Inland Waterway Trust Fund and the regular Corps appropriations. The remaining costs for the recommended plan will be cost shared 65-35 between the Corps and the Port of New Orleans. Included, as part of the inland navigation increment, is the $40 million for a Community Impact Mitigation Plan. Some of the existing utility owners will have to pay for their own relocations, as they are non-compensable (Costs reflect October 2003 price levels.) The breakdown of the costs are as follows:

Corps of Engineers appropriations	$341 million
Inland Waterways Trust Fund	270 million
Portof New Orleans	33 million
Utility owners (relocations)	28 million

Average annual benefits in the form of savings in transportation costs for the nation’s navigation industry is estimated at $110 million. The benefit-to-cost ratio is 2.0 to 1. Besides the benefits to the navigation industry, this project will have benefits to the city, region and state that are not captured in our analysis. An average of at least 950 jobs annually can be created as a result of construction of this project. The city will get two new, more reliable bridges at St. Claude and North Claiborne avenues. The project will have significant, wide-ranging, positive economic impacts to the city and the state, as has been the case with similar projects in other areas. For example, estimates include an additional $1.4 billion in secondary spending in the metropolitan New Orleans area during the construction period, and the generation of another $23 million in local and state tax revenues during this period.

Portof New Orleans