Big award for SCPA’s Leatherman Terminal project

South Carolina Ports’ Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal has been named 2021 South Carolina Project of the Year by the South Carolina Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

This prestigious award recognizes the complex engineering and construction process behind the Leatherman Terminal’s Phase One, and it celebrates the extensive collaboration among numerous partners needed to realize the $1 billion project.

The state-of-the-art container terminal can efficiently work the biggest ships calling on East Coast ports. Phase One was completed on budget and ahead of schedule. The terminal handled its first container on March 30 and welcomed its first vessel on April 9.

“SC Ports is immensely proud to open the first container terminal in the U.S. since 2009 in South Carolina, adding capacity to the East Coast port market at a time it is sorely needed,” SC Ports President and CEO Jim Newsome said. “The opening of Leatherman Terminal is the culmination of years of effort by our talented engineering team and project partners. It is their expertise, vision and hard work that made this container terminal a reality.”

Project partners had to navigate challenging site conditions and oversee a complicated project while managing multiple contracts and hundreds of people working on the site every day.

The SC Ports’ engineering team worked with many contractors, including primary contract holders HDR Inc., Banks Construction Co., Samet Corp., Cape Romain/McLean A Joint Venture and Cape Romain Contractors Inc., as well as many South Carolina-based secondary contractors.

The Leatherman Terminal complements efforts to modernize Wando Welch Terminal and deepen Charleston Harbor to 52 feet. These investments will enable S.C. Ports to handle four 14,000-TEU vessels simultaneously in 2021.