By Molly Parker
mparker@scbiznews.com
Published June 4, 2009

The two companies that were awarded a $55 million contract for initial construction of the new North Charleston container terminal are about to dig in and begin work on a 5,000-foot containment wall.

Ships will berth at that wall in five years if the S.C. State Ports Authority has its way.

Cape Romain Contractors Inc. of Wando and Massachusetts-based Jay Cashman Inc., the dual winners of the SPA bid, are expected to break ground on the project in a matter of days.

This work will begin despite several issues:

• A lawsuit pending in federal court against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers challenges the project’s permitting process.
• A heated debate is ongoing about how — or whether — to provide near-dock rail access to both Norfolk Southern and CSX.
• The interchange connecting the terminal’s access road to Interstate 26 still awaits approval by the Federal Highway Administration.

Any one of these issues could halt the terminal project, temporarily or indefinitely.

A concern
“Is it a concern, sure,” said Sonny DuPre, president of Cape Romain Contractors. “But the Ports Authority seems ready to move forward full steam ahead.”

According to the contract, the expected start date is Monday.

“We plan to start immediately thereafter,” DuPre said.

The containment wall project, which will stretch out 850 feet from the existing shoreline to the main shipping channel in Charleston Harbor, is the first major piece of construction on the 280-acre property after months of site excavation and preparation for the planned three-berth terminal.

Crews will dredge about 880,000 cubic yards of material, install the steel pipe and sheet pile wall and construct a berm of about 290,000 cubic yards of rock.

Should a legal tangle bring construction to a halt, DuPre said the SPA would still have to honor any purchase orders that are left hanging. The contract includes language to “deal with those matters,” he said.

As of Wednesday evening, the SPA executive team was still reviewing the contract but is expected to sign off on it soon, spokesman Byron Miller said. The SPA is not concerned about a lawsuit derailing its plans.

“All the necessary state and federal permits have been obtained and are available publicly at PortEIS.com,” Miller said.

So far, DuPre said verbal agreements are in place with two major suppliers: Skyline Steel out of Parsippany, N.J., will provide the pipe and sheet piles, and a portion of the rock will come from Atlantic Minerals Limited of Newfoundland, Canada. About five subcontractors also will be brought in for the project, DuPre said, though those details were still being finalized.

“Their (The SPA’s) position is they want to move forward and get the terminal built, and I’m under contract to get that work done,” DuPre said.

Court case continues
Meanwhile, the Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of the S.C. Coastal
Conservation League, continues to pursue a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which served as the permitting agency for the project.

The law center claims the corps erred in its analysis of the impact that truck traffic from the terminal will have on a 5.3-mile-long stretch along Interstate 26. That stretch includes the point at which the terminal access road will hook up to the interstate, around Exit 217, up to the intersection of I-26 and I-526, around Exit 212. The project does not propose widening any sections of I-26.

Truck traffic generated by the terminal will cause the road to “clog” and “fail” years earlier than it otherwise would, the lawsuit claims, and says that because the terminal-related highway impact was underestimated, the permits for the access road and terminal are invalid.

The lawsuit also contends that the permitting agencies erred in not considering the alternative of using near-dock rail, which could mitigate the impact of traffic on I-26.

On Tuesday, a federal judge denied the law center’s request to add the Federal Highway Administration to the suit.