Port Fourchon Begins Slip D Construction
The dredging contractor for the Greater Lafourche Port Commission’s Northern Expansion Slip D Bucket Dredge project has begun excavating a new channel at Port Fourchon.
Slip D, the latest phase of the port’s Northern Expansion, will add 300 acres of developed property and create more than 10,000 linear feet of waterfront. Port Fourchon’s newest slip will be 1,000 feet wide and nearly 4,000 feet long in response to the needs of the offshore supply vessels that frequent Port Fourchon.
By comparison, Slips B and C are each 700 feet wide and 7,000 feet long.
"We look to the future when designing the footprint of any new port development project," said Port Director Chett Chiasson. "Our tenants envision bringing larger vessels into port waterways into the future, so Slip D is growing in width to accommodate longer, wider vessels and the turning radius a larger vessel may need."
Nearly 4.0 million cubic yards of material will be dredged to create 150 acres of developed property adjacent to the waterfront along Slip D as well as 65 acres of new marsh. Two miles of steel bulkhead will be constructed along the newly created Slip D waterfront, and one mile of new roadway will be constructed for land access to Slip D leases.
A fully developed Slip D will take an estimated six to eight years to construct, but the Port Commission has already received offers. A "right of first refusal" is in place on a section of the new slip’s as yet undeveloped property.
Total development cost of Slip D, including design work, dredging, road and basic infrastructure work, and bulkhead installation, is estimated at $100 million.