The IHNC Lock expansion is an Army Corps of Engineers plan to replace the current industrial canal lock with a 990 x 110 x 22ft cast in place lock with current cost estimate of 4.7 Billion dollars. The current planned construction dates are 2033-2047 will depend on funds being obligated by congress in the next few years. The project in many different forms has been authorized as a replacement for the current lock since 1956. Various plans considered either placing the new lock at the current industrial canal site or further down the Mississippi River in Violet. In the 1970s a comparative site analysis favored the Violet site, but Jimmy Carter ordered the Violet site removed from consideration as the recommended plan for environmental reasons, and in 1991 the Corps said they would stop considering the violet site due to concerns about the impact expanding the Violet canal would have on wetlands in the area and strong community resistance. Initial construction work for the lock replacement had started in 2005 when the levee along the east bank of the Industrial Canal catastrophically failed in several places (See photo below). After the failure the corps started revising their plans for the industrial canal(IHNC) lock replacement and in 2007 the MRGO(Mississippi River Gulf Outlet) that fed storm surge into the INHC during Katrina was deauthorized but the IHNC was allowed to stay in place and plans to replace the lock at the IHNC have continued development. The goal of the design is to widen the lock so multiple barges can pass at once to decrease transit time in the Gulf Intercostal Waterway (GIWW) and decrease amount of downtime and money spent repairing the current lock. Per the army corps’ reports there is no benefit to the surrounding neighborhoods and minimal benefit to the city of New Orleans overall as the barge traffic is almost entirely pass through (>97%)rarely stopping at the Port of New Orleans. In contrast the Corps reports anticipate considerable harm to the area in the form of construction, traffic, and noise issues which are projected to lower property values. Myopically, the Corps does not list risk of catastrophic levee failure, flooding and elevation of insurance premiums as harms although that has been a harm from the current IHNC.
Please see this comment guide that highlights some concerns that have been noted with the plan described in the GRR
If you would like more information about the project the Corps of engineers has most of the documents available on their page for this project
This is the website is for the organization trying to stop the project. It has an excellent video about the history of the project.
Additional Articles about the project:
Times Pic June 2025 Lock project cost soars/cost benefit plummets
Times Pic Dec 2024 Lock Project revived Neighbors concerned
Voicing your opinion about the project to your politicians would be very helpful as well:
The Stop the lock orginization has put together a petition to been sent to our political representation to them know where their constituents stand
Asking U.S. representatives Troy Carter and Steve Scalise not to obligate funds for this project could help a great deal
Asking City Council members and other Candidates currently running for Mayor to make opposition to Corps’ recommended plan part of the their platform
Helena Moreno email is LetsGo@HelenaMorenoLA.com
Oliver Thomas email is hello@otforus.com
Royce Duplessis email is info@royceduplessis.com
