Significant Progress on the Charleston Harbor Deepening

South Carolina Ports Authority (SCPA) posted 10 percent container growth in 2015, a year highlighted by strong volumes and significant progress on the harbor deepening project.

The company handled 144,718 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in December, pushing total container volume to 1.97 million in 2015.

As measured in pier containers, or total boxes handled, SCPA’s two container terminals moved 1.12 million boxes in 2015, an increase of 9.54 percent over 1.02 million containers handled last year.

“Our 10 percent TEU volume growth for the 2015 calendar year is outstanding,” said Jim Newsome, SCPA president and CEO.

In addition to strong volume growth during the year, Newsome also highlighted the successful progress of the Charleston Harbor Deepening Project.

With the issuance of the Chief’s Report in September and signing of the PreConstruction Engineering and Design Agreement in December, the project continued to move forward with historic momentum through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers planning process.

Last week the project cleared another milestone with the Record of Decision, the formal recommendation of the project to Congress for authorization.

Board Action

The board recently approved two contracts related to the development of the Hugh K. Leatherman, Sr. Terminal, including consultancy services for the concept design phase and a change order for additional construction activities pertaining to the containment wall.

The facility will increase SCPA’s current container capacity by 50 percent, with the first phase expected to open for operations by 2020.

To accommodate rapid growth within SCPA’s refrigerated cargo market, the board also approved a construction contract for the installation of additional refrigerated container infrastructure at the Wando Welch Terminal.