New terminal at Charleston port scheduled to open March 2021

CHARLESTON, SC (WCIV) — South Carolina Ports Authority announced on Thursday that the construction for a new terminal for a Charleston port is on schedule for a March 2021 opening.

The terminal, named the Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal, will be able to double the S.C. Ports current capacity when it's finished.

“We look forward to opening the first phase of the Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal, which will be the country’s first container terminal in more than a decade,” S.C. Ports President and CEO Jim Newsome said. “The Leatherman Terminal will enable S.C. Ports to handle more cargo and bigger ships. Businesses depend on us to efficiently move their cargo, and this flow of goods creates more jobs and investment in South Carolina.”

When phase one opens, the terminal will add 700,000 TEUs, which stands for twenty-foot equivalent units, the normal measurements of containers.

So far, crews finished the concrete pour for the wharf deck in July, and two cranes are expected to arrive in September from Shanghai, China, with three more arriving in October.

They will assemble and test the cranes before officially opening in March.

Officials said that vertical construction is nearly 70 percent complete as many on-site buildings are being buil.

"S.C. Ports is in the final year of a six-year capital improvement plan, a culmination of years of strategic infrastructure planning and $2 billion in investments. The Leatherman Terminal complements efforts to modernize Wando Welch Terminal and deepen Charleston Harbor to 52 feet," officials said in the press release.

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