Industrial Canal (IHNC) (New Orleans, Louisiana)

 water  Add category

 Upload a photo

The Industrial Canal, also known as the Inner Harbor Navigational Canal, is the only shipping link between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain. It is subject to tides from its openeing to the Intracoastal Waterway and the lake; it is connected to the river via a narrow lock.

The canal was meant to be the new port of New Orleans and it is a major container port (although it never replaced river warves as intended). Since the closure of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, the only deepwater access to the Industrial Canal is through the locks.

Hurricane Katrina's storm surge entered via the MRGO and breaches in the canal levee flooded the upper and lower ninth ward. The waterway is now protected from storm surge by the construction of the Lake Borgne Surge Barrier.