As taxpayer funds deplete, SC Ports puts sole focus on rail project

MOUNT PLEASANT — The $550 million in taxpayer funding that South Carolina lawmakers set aside for two projects at the Port of Charleston will now be used for just one — a rail-based cargo hub adjacent to the Leatherman Terminal in North Charleston.

The Navy Base Intermodal Facility, where cargo containers will be transferred between trucks and trains, is over budget and behind schedule.

The State Ports Authority said this week the project’s budget now totals $545 million — up from an original $400 million price tag three years ago.

Legislators want to know more about SC Ports projects delays, cost overruns

The cost overrun means a second project that was supposed to be funded by the taxpayer dollars — a $150 million barge facility to move containers between port terminals by river instead of trucks — will have to be paid for another way. That could come from grants or the ports authority’s operations. Some initial work has already started.

The Joint Bond Review Committee’s fiscal accountability subcommittee will meet with ports authority leaders in July to hear an update on the projects. That meeting of the legislative oversight panel has not yet been scheduled.

It’s not clear what legislators will say about the barge project’s status.

Those interviewed by the SC Daily Gazette said they are still trying to get up to speed on the ventures ahead of next month’s meeting.

However, the $550 million was given to the authority without a mandate that both projects are completed.

The ports authority said any further increases that could push the cargo hub’s price tag beyond $550 million will be paid for from the maritime agency’s own funds.

Part of the construction delay has been due to disagreements between CSX Corp. and Norfolk Southern railroads over how their trains will access the container transfer site, which has been in the works for more than a decade.

Barbara Melvin, the authority’s president and CEO, has also blamed tariffs, trade uncertainties, a changing business climate and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that forces the ports authority to use union labor at new terminals — citing training issues — for the delay.

At this point, the 118-acre Navy Base Intermodal Facility is roughly 80% complete, with miles of new tracks and three of six electric, rail-mounted gantry cranes installed.

Concrete paving has finished, and new buildings and canopies have been completed.

Also, the Cosgrove Avenue Extension — an overpass and pedestrian bridge connecting North Charleston to the city’s Waterfront Park — will open in July. The project also includes other work to minimize the impact of rail traffic on local roads.

The ports authority has long lobbied for a rail-based cargo hub near its waterfront terminals, saying the lack of on-dock or near-dock rail puts the Port of Charleston at a disadvantage to other ports.

Charleston is the only major East Coast port without such rail access.

About 300,000 containers, or roughly one-fourth of the port’s annual total, are moved by rail each year, with trucks handling the rest.

The Navy Base Intermodal Facility will have the capacity to nearly triple that number while potentially eliminating thousands of tractor-trailer trips along local roads and state highways.

Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to reflect that the original price tag for the Navy Base Intermodal Facility was $400 million.