A Southwest Louisiana port has grown significantly larger after acquiring a sizable tract of land along a key shipping route.
Marine Log reports that the West Calcasieu Port in Sulphur announced yesterday that it has bought 172 additional acres fronting the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. The deal pushes the port’s total size to roughly 400 acres.
To pay for the land, the port tapped a $750,000 state grant administered by the Louisiana Office of Facility Planning and supplemented it with money from its own reserves.
Board of commissioners president Dick Kennison described the deal as a meaningful step for the port and the broader industrial community in the region. The newly acquired land, made up of two parcels south of the waterway, is meant to address two pressing needs, he said: room for more barge fleeting and added capacity to handle dredge spoils on site.
That added capacity arrives as petrochemical, LNG, energy and other construction work continues across Southwest Louisiana. Port officials say the larger fleeting area should help accommodate heavier barge traffic, run operations more smoothly and shore up the region’s marine transportation network.
