THE Port of New Orleans' US$1.8 billion container terminal remains "on track" despite a lawsuit from a nearby district attorney seeking to block the project, says the port's chief executive, reports New York's Journal of Commerce.

The lawsuit seeks to terminate the cooperation agreement and declare the sale of the St Bernard property be "null and void".

Port of New Orleans CEO Brandy Christian said the port authority is reviewing the parish (term for county in the State of Louisiana) lawsuit against the port's board of commissioners by St Bernard Parish District Attorney Perry Nicosia. The suit seeks to halt development of the Louisiana International Terminal (LIT) in St Bernard Parish.

"Any challenge to the Port of New Orleans' jurisdiction to operate an international marine terminal in St Bernard Parish is meritless, and we are confident that this will be demonstrated in the legal process," Ms Christian said.

The LIT, which would have annual throughput of two million TEU, would handle the mega-ships that are not capable of docking at New Orleans due to air draft restrictions on the Mississippi River.

Last year, the project secured the backing of Mediterranean Shipping Co subsidiary TIL and Ports America, which pledged to invest a combined US$800 million to develop the terminal, with the remainder coming from the state of Louisiana.

According to the suit, a 1992 law reduced the New Orleans port district from three parishes - Orleans, St Bernard, and Jefferson - to just Orleans, which means the port authority does not have "general jurisdiction whatsoever in St Bernard Parish."

It added that the St Bernard Port, Harbour and Terminal district has "sole power" to regulate international commerce coming through St Bernard Parish.

The Port of New Orleans and the St Bernard Port District have been working together under a joint marketing and cooperation agreement since 2004, the lawsuit said.

But that agreement did not include specific plans about the LIT until December 2022, when it was amended to include the official sale of 1,100 acres in St Bernard to New Orleans and cooperation on the development of a new container facility in St Bernard, the lawsuit claims.