The port encompasses 54 Mississippi River miles in St. Charles, St. John the Baptist and St. James parishes
Traffic through the Port of South Louisiana increased slightly in 2011 compared with 2010, according to port officials. The number of barges moored at the port during the last year rose nearly 7 percent to 56,518 in 2011, compared with 52,928 the year before and 45,612 in 2009.
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Bennett Dufrene works on a crane rail as construction continues on the new finger pier at the Port of South Louisiana Globalplex dock in Reserve on Wednesday. The number of ships mooring in the port's 54-river mile jurisdiction rose just over 5 percent, to 4,043 vessels dropping anchor last year compared with 3,842 in 2010 and 3,490 in 2009.
Joel T. Chaisson, the port's executive director, said Tuesday that totals for commodities passing through the port aren't yet available, but that the higher vessel count indicates an uptick in those figures as well.
The port encompasses 54 Mississippi River miles in St. Charles, St. John the Baptist and St. James parishes. The vast majority of the 246 million tons of cargo that passed through the port in 2010 were bulk commodities such as crude oil, petrochemicals, corn and soybeans.
Although most of the cargo that passes through the port docks at refineries, chemical plants and grain elevators in the three parishes, the state agency has been working to expand its Globalplex cargo terminal in Reserve.
A new 700-foot-long pier is under construction and is expected to be complete by mid-March.
The pier will allow a second 965-foot Panamax cargo vessel to dock at the port, while allowing cargo loaded onto barges docked onto the other side of the 65-foot-wide pier. The cost is estimated to be $22 million.
The port's board of commissioners on Tuesday approved the sale of $8 million in bonds to finance unexpected expenses with the project, including the discovery of a barge buried under the river bottom and delays because of flood conditions in the river in 2011.
Port officials say they expect to get $6 million for the project from the state's Port Priority Program.
