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SPA says rights to dredge site will save $40 million |
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Wednesday, 23 July 2008 |
SCBIZ Daily Staff
CHARLESTON -- The U.S. Department of the Interior has agreed to give the S.C. State Ports Authority free access to a dredge disposal site off Charleston Harbor. The SPA plans to use the material as fill for about 57 acres in construction of a container terminal in North Charleston.
The SPA estimates access to fill material from the federally controlled site will save on construction costs and reduce the project’s environmental footprint because the site is nearby — seven miles off the coast.
Purchasing fill material from a commercial source and having it delivered from afar would have cost an additional $40 million, the authority estimated.
The terminal project is slated to cost a total of $550 million for construction and equipment, but SPA spokesman Byron Miller said many of the jobs have come in under budget. The savings from the fill access was not factored into initial estimates, he said, because securing federal approval to utilize the Ocean Dredged Material Disposal Site took months.
On Monday, port officials joined U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and U.S. Rep. Henry Brown, both Republicans, in praising the decision as a win-win situation. Graham called it a “common-sense decision to utilize existing resources for the benefit of the taxpayer.”
The site has been used for dredge disposal since 1896. Most of the material generated by dredging the harbor’s entrance channel is located there.
The removal of material from the site will allow it to accept more dredge material in the future, the SPA said.
Construction of the terminal, which will expand the Port of Charleston’s container business by 50%, calls for filling 57 acres with up to 5 million cubic yards of material. The SPA has agreed to bring in at least 75% of the fill by water to reduce the impact of truck traffic.
To a smaller degree, the SPA also will use fill material from portions of the 1,300-acre property it once had slated for the Global Gateway expansion on Daniel Island.
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