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Project Fact Sheet

Updated August 23, 2005

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.

FEATURES. The recommended plan is for a deep-draft lock, 110 feet wide by 1,200 feet long by 36 feet of draft. The lock construction would use a pre-fabricated, float-in method. Five lock modules of concrete and steel would be built at a remote location and floated to the north-of-Claiborne-Avenue site. Movement of the barges will be facilitated by the 300-foot horizontal clearance of the Port of New Orleans and U.S. Coast Guard bridge at Florida Avenue completed in 2005. The modular float-in method allows for construction in a highly congested urban area with ZERO residential relocations. Bypass channels will be built to allow navigation to continue during construction.

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 has been completed for demolition and environmental restoration of the abandoned industrial sites on the east side of the canal adjacent to the future location of the new lock. The $29 million contract, let to Washington Group, involved removal of aboveground and underground structures and canalside obstructions, and also extensive environmental restoration. The area, visible from the North Claiborne Avenue bridge, is now green. The work was completed in June 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. The next 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 related 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.  

On July 30, 2005, the Corps began to collect soil, sediment and water samples in the canal to insure the proper management of material that will be dredged later in the lock project. News release.

FUNDING.  For fiscal year 2005, the President’s budget was $10 million, and our capability was $24 million, and Congress appropriated $14 million. For fiscal year 2006, the President’s budget is zero and our capability is $25 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 $45 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 January 2005. 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. Four 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. And, we signed an agreement in May 2005 with the City of New Orleans Sanitation Department to clean up vacant lots in the impacted area.

BACKGROUND. Congress approved the project as a “Construction New-Start” in fiscal year 1999.The recommended plan is estimated to cost $764 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) 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 $45 million for the Community Impact Mitigation Plan. Some of the existing utility owners will have to pay for their own relocations, as they are non-compensable. The costs reflect October 2004 price levels:

                         COSTS, in millions

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.

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