SPA awards $43 million contract for additional work at new Charleston terminal

26 Mar 2012 - Port Planning, Dredging

The new terminal at the Port of Charleston will increase container capacity by a further 50 percent. Jonathon Lamb | Wikimedia Commons

• 2 million cubic yards of dredge material will be moved to the site of Charleston's new $525 million container terminal

• The contract was awarded to Jay Cashman of Massachusetts

The South Carolina State Ports Authority (SPA) has awarded a $43 million contract to move 1.75 million cubic yards of dredge material to the site of the states new $525 million container terminal at the old Charleston Naval Base.

The job, awarded to Massachusetts-based construction company Jay Cashman, will see the material moved from a dredge disposal site on Daniel Island to inside a huge containment wall at the site of the new 280-acre container terminal.

The works, scheduled to start next month, will also see further structural works carried out on the containment wall.

According to Joe Bryant, the SPA's vice president for terminal development, once the material is in place at the new site it will take around 18 months for it to compact and drain.

“This will take all of the upland fill that we have stockpiled,” Bryant added.

The South Carolinian terminal was originally scheduled for completion in 2013. However, the port authority delayed the project after deciding that the extra space provided by the site was not as yet a necessity.

The new facility is now expected to be in operation from the middle of 2017, with the terminal set to increase the Port of Charleston’s container handling capacity by as much as 50 percent.