By Dan McCue
Staff Writer

How the new S.C. State Ports Authority port terminal at the former Charleston Naval Base would impact traffic congestion in the area has been an ongoing concern throughout the permitting process for the new terminal.

Among the 30 conditions attached to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ approval of the permit is one that says the terminal will not open until a port access road linking it to Interstate 26 is completed.

“Seven thousand truck trips a day through local streets is just not going to fly,” said Lt. Col. Edward R. Fleming of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

When looking at the potential traffic impacts of the new terminal, the corps relied on input from the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments, which examined the issue of growth and formulated a series of projections for the area through 2025, said Nathaniel Ball, the corps’ project manager for the terminal permitting process.

“The council of governments gave us their assumption about the future, and to that we added certain assumptions about pieces of undeveloped property in the area, like the Macalloy site and other buildings, and what they would generate in terms of traffic in the foreseeable future,” Ball said.

The whole subject of traffic is the one area that appeared to make Fleming bristle, particularly regarding accusations that the traffic models the corps relied on in making its decision were flawed.

“Our models show that as a result of the growth that’s already occurred, the interstate between Dorchester Road and Montague Avenue will reach a failing level of service by 2013 even without the terminal. With it, that stretch of the interstate reaches that point in 2012, just a year earlier,” Fleming said.

“Deride traffic models all you want, but the reality is, based on everything we know today, that the port affects (only) the timing of the need for significant improvements along I-26, not the need for them.”

Those who are unhappy with the permit being issued basically now have one option: suing the federal government.

“However, like I said, I think we followed a very deliberate process and followed through on processes the corps has historically relied on, and I’m comfortable with the results of that process,” Fleming said.

Nancy Vinson, of the S.C. Coastal Conservation League, said the resolution of its challenge before an administrative law judge to state permits for the port terminal and access road case appears to be a long way off and may not come until fall.

Dan McCue is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dmccue@charlestonbusiness.com.

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