b'oCTobEr 12 - 25, 2020Carolina ports 9(CAPABILITIEScontinued from delivera52-foot-deepharbor,to page 6) enableaccesstoPortofCharleston upon widespread vaccine availability. terminalsformegacontainershipsat Junewasourlowpoint,andanytimewithouttidalrestrictions. Julyand AugusthavebeensteadilyThe $550 million Charleston Harbor increasing, as a lot of inventory had toDeepeningProject,fullybackedby be restocked, and, its a funny thing,stateandfederalfunds,alsoison but we say Americans buy stuff whentarget for completion in early spring. they cant go out to theaters and res- Benefit-to-costratiosfortheproject taurants, Newsome said. have been as high as 6.4 to 1.We certainly have not been justWewillhaveessentiallythe waiting for the market to take effectdeepestharborontheEastCoast, on our volumes, he continued. WeNewsome said. Were in really good have been very focused on businessshape there at a time when we think development, working hard on retailits needed. The ships are handling a distributionandexporttransloadinglot of empty containers today, but, as ofplastics.Werenotcontentwiththe export market continues to grow, simplysayingthemarkettakesusparticularlywithplasticsandsomeIndicative of megacontainerships already calling the Port of Charleston, the 15,072-TEU-capacity where it goes. ofthecommoditiesweverecruitedCMA CGM Brazil docks Sept. 20 at Wando Welch Terminal.(Photo credit: Walter Lagrenne, SCPA)We still believe, when all is saidhere, the weights are getting heavier, and done, that the Southeast remainsso these ships will need deeper draft. erships,includingthe15,072-TEU- ing a lot of support from the State of the best place to be in the port busi- These investments are to combinecapacityCMACGMBrazil,whichSouth Carolina.ness, Newsome said, citing regionaltoenablethePortofCharlestontoarrived Sept. 20 at the Wando WelchHepointedspecificallytothe populationgrowth,includingwithsimultaneously handle as many as fourTerminal. (See story on page 15.)$350 million put up in advance by the peoplemovingfromhigh-cost-of- 14,000-TEU-capacity containerships,I think weve done a really exem- state for the harbor project, as well as living Northeast cities to more afford- with capability to accommodate ves- plary job on our infrastructure, New- $170 million in state funds for a new ableSouthernlocalesfromwhichsels with a capacity of 19,000 TEUs.some said. Im very proud of whatPort of Charleston access road.they can telecommute. If you look atTheportalreadyisbeingcalledbythe team has done. Its a lot of work(CAPABILITIEScontinued on the real estate market here, one couldsome of the worlds largest contain- togethertomakeithappen,includ- page 15)argue, that trend is even accelerating because of the pandemic.With SC Ports building infrastruc-turebasedupona50-yearoutlook, thelong-termimpactsofCOVID-19 do remain a bit of an unknown. But it remainsclearthatstate-owned,state-operated facilities in the Southeast will continue to provide shippers with highly efficient, cost-effective solutions.When Newsome joined SC Ports in 2009, the new North Charleston con-tainer terminal was already permitted. Now called the Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal, the facility is on schedule for opening its first phase in late March. Hesaidasecondphasecouldopen in 2028, likely earlier if indicated by demand,withthethirdphasetobe ready in the early 2030s. Development is taking place on a 286-acre site for-merly occupied by a U.S. Navy base.Its going to be a beautiful new terminalwithtallcranes,Newsome said.Fiveship-to-shorecraneseach with a lift height of 169 feet are to be in place along a 1,400-foot-long wharf, supportedby25hybridrubber-tired gantries, an expansive container yard and optimized operational technology.ThefirstphaseattheLeather-manTerminalistoadd700,000 TEUs of annual throughput capacity at the Port of Charleston. Upon full build-out 2.4 million TEUs of yearly capacityaretobeadded,doubling existing port capacity.At the same time as the new termi-nal is advancing to handle the mega-containerships of today and tomorrow, the Port of Charlestons Wando Welch Terminal, which dates back nearly 40 years, is in the midst of $500 million of improvements for accommodating big boxships. By the end of 2021, the renewedMountPleasantterminalis to have 15 ship-to-shore cranes each with 155 feet of lift height, 65 rubber-tiredgantries,morethan40truck gates, modern temperature-controlled containerized cargo facilities and an on-dock transload facility.Anewhigh-efficiencyTideworks terminal operating system is to be imple-mented at both container facilities. And a new joint ventureCharleston Steve-doring Co. LLCis optimizing use of the Port of Charlestons terminal assets and resources.Alsomovingforwardoverthe pastdecadehasbeentheeffortto'