Charleston Regional Business Journal - Special Section: Hugh Leatherman Terminal Opening

FROM THE

TOP

The Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal opens with a crack of champagne, the first ship to call and expectations of a flood of economic development for South Carolina.

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Photo/Kim McManus

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Leatherman Terminal expected to drive business across S.C.

S.C. Ports Authority officials say the timing was right for a new containership terminal, the first in the U.S. since 2009, to allow larger ships to export and import and to alleviate pressure on the Wando Welch Terminal.

(Photo/Kim McManus)

By Teri Errico Griffis

T

tgriffis@scbiznews.com

he completion of Phase One of the Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal is happening at the exact moment the industry needs it, said Barbara Melvin, COO of the S.C. Ports Authority.

“In life sometimes you don’t hit the timing well but in this instance, we are really bringing this infrastructure online, not only when we need it, but when the industry really needs it,” she said.

After permitting for the new terminal began in 2003, SCPA President and CEO Jim Newsome said it was heartening to see the first phase come together.

“Fortunately, we have been growing above our forecast in the last 10 years so we were able to adjust when to bring the Leatherman Terminal online,” he said.

“Really as Barbara said, you just could not have timed the terminal any better if you look at the surging business.”

With import volumes up 20% in the last eight months alone, the Port of Charleston is almost at capacity, creating an even more urgent need to get the HLT up and running now.

Without the Leatherman Terminal, the SCPA in entirety would have 2.8

million TEUS of capacity — an industry measurement equivalent to a 20-foot container. Already, the port is handling 2.4 million, Newsome said.

“If you look at our capacity today, we need this. We need the extra cranes, extra lift machines, extra storage capacity,” he said.

Phase One of the HLT’s three phases adds 700,000 TEUs of capacity, and by full build-out will be able to handle 2.4 million — as much as the Wando Welch Terminal.

Following the arrival of the first ship at the Leatherman Terminal, the SCPA’s goal has been to move a total of four weekly services over to the HLT, relieving about 30% of container volume from the Wando Welch Terminal.

As part of the 286-acre project, Phase One equipment includes five ship-toshore cranes that at 169-feet high are some of the tallest on the East Coast. The cranes also have an outreach of 228 feet, which allows the Leatherman Terminal to service ships as big as 20,000 TEUs. “We’ve been saying really since the day I got here, this is going to be a big-ship industry. I think it’s emerged in a way that even none of us could have imagined,” Newsome said. “So this infrastructure is

very much responsive to that. Everything we’ve done is responsive to that.”

Additional SCPA projects occurring simultaneously include the refurbishment of the Wando Welch Terminal, the expansion of Inland Port Greer and the Charleston Harbor Deepening Project.

To allow the massive, post-Panamax ships to arrive at HLT without having to ride the tides, the Army Corps of Engineers has been dredging the harbor for years to bring it to a record depth of 52 feet.

Fully built out, the Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal will have cost nearly $2 billion, funded primarily through revenue bonds, the port said.

“We’ve borrowed a lot of money, but we knew we needed to do that. We planned for that and we’re well within our planning target,” Newsome said.

In March, the Port of Charleston reported record cargo numbers, and Newsome said 2021 could potentially bring about the largest operating cash flow in the history of the port.

“We need all that to continue to invest,” he said. “That’s really the name of the game. All of our operating cash flow goes into reinvestment of facilities.”

Raising a capital investment of the HTL’s size was one of the most complex

aspects of the project for Newsome, but he thinks the multipliers will make the investment worth it.

“A terminal like this is a magnet for distribution businesses and manufacturing businesses,” he said. “I think the balance of that has shifted a little bit from to distribution from manufacturing. It gives them an opportunity to do industrial real estate development, which attracts more businesses.”

The terminal also creates jobs that fill the residential real estate market, Melvin said.

“You can just literally trace the trickledown economics of an investment of this magnitude,” she said.

With so much work on the waterfront, Newsome added that this terminal will allow a lot more growth in the staff because the SCPA is not automating. The choice was obvious, he said, given the great workforce in Charleston.

Newsome and Melvin credit so much of the HLT’s success so far to the workers. They spoke highly about the jobs the engineers have done and how essential everyone’s role at the SPCA is, whether as a heavy lift maintenance worker, securiSee TERMINAL, Page 20

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Since the 1800s, dredging hasn’t stopped for Charleston Harbor

By Teri Errico Griffis

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an you dig it?

The Charleston Harbor is undergoing a major deepening, but dredging projects actually have been ongoing in the harbor since the 1800s.

The first deepening in 1878 was to 21 feet, while the current Charleston Harbor Deepening Project, the seventh major dredging, will reach a record 52 feet.

The last dredging was performed in 1996 and took the harbor down to 45 feet, said Jeff Livasy, civil works chief for the Army Corps of Engineers.

The entire $600 million infrastructure project is expected to be completed in late 2022. At that point, the Charleston Harbor will be the deepest harbor on the East Coast.

“The Charleston Harbor Deepening Project post-45 is all about transportation efficiency, primarily for the extremely large post-Panamax containerships, which move more materials and goods in one trip, passing those savings to consumers in stores and buyers of manufactured goods,” Livasy said.

Post-Panamax ships have a deeper draft when fully loaded, which Livasy said is a key driver in the harbor improvements.

The deepening project on a federal level has a benefits costs ratio of 6.4, meaning that for every dollar invested, $6.4 dollars gets returned to South Carolina’s economy.

With all the work happening underwater, Livasy said it’s hard to convey the magnitude of the project. To paint a picture, he likened it to the Ravenel Bridge’s $630 million construction, which was built with port expansion in mind.

“That bridge needed to be elevated to allow bigger ships to pass under it, and now the harbor needs to be deepened to allow bigger ships to sail through it,” Livasy said.

The Charleston Harbor and the Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal will combine to soon allow a 19,000 TEU ship to sail into the port and dock. For comparison of the growth over time, the Wando Terminal originally was built to allow a roughly 3,000-TEU ship. TEUs are an industry measurement of the equivalent of a 20-foot container.

In September, the CMA CGM Brazil arrived at Wando Welch Terminal carrying 15,128 TEUs. The ship is the largest ship to call on the East Coast to date, but was only able to reach the terminal by timing high tides to movements. Moving forward, ships of even larger magnitude won’t have to navigate the tide flow to reach the Leatherman Terminal.

Senior Director of Engineering and

“The Charleston Harbor Deepening Project post-45 is all about transportation efficiency.”

Jeff Livasy Civil works chief, Army Corps of Engineers

Facilities Walter Lagarenne thinks ships stop will growing any larger. While the harbor’s dredging will need to be maintained over the years, this could be the last major deepening needed for the port.

“There has to be a break point when it doesn’t become economical to keep building bigger or the ships won’t fit in places they need to go,” Lagarenne said.

He thinks most ships are going to be around 19,000 TEUs. That’s why the Hugh Leatherman Terminal was constructed to handle a ship of that size upon completion of Phase I. “That’s kind of the sweet spot we think they’ll start zeroing in on. We’ll be able to handle nearly every ship,” he said.

Lagarenne added that there are some ships clock that in at more than 20,000 TEUs, but those don’t typically head to the East Coast and only sail between certain ports.

The Charleston Harbor Deepening Project began with a planning study in 2010 and construction began seven years later. For the SPCA, the most important aspect was dredging the first berth in front of the Leatherman Terminal so that it was prepared to receive a ship of any size at opening this month.

Completing the project in 12 years, Livasy said, is testament to the stakeholders, the S.C. Ports Authority and to federal and local leaders who secured the money and supported the project for its economic impact on the state and nation.

“For a federal project, that’s pretty fast not only for the planning involved but for the funding that needs to be put into place, the authority to not only study it and build it,” he said.

Nine dredges were used to complete the Charleston Harbor Deepening Project, spanning from the entrance channel up to the Wando and Cooper rivers.

Additionally, more than 1.6 million working hours have been completed, along with 600,000 equipment hours. On a daily basis, 250 workers participate in the project, using 51 pieces of equipment to remove 600,000 tons of material.

“This project impacts not only the Lowcountry, but the upstate as manufacturers move in, provide good jobs and invest in South Carolina,” Livasy said.

CRBJ

Reach Teri Errico Griffis at 843-849-3144.

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Building the Leatherman Terminal

April 19-May 2, 2021

Millions of tons of stone shipped in from Canada to keep Lowcountry roadways clear were used in the site preparation. In this photo, stone is being used to prepare the Leatherman Terminal site in 2019. (Photo/Walter Lagarenne)

The data behind the Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal at the Port of Charleston shows how the first containership terminal to open in the U.S. since 2009 operates.

286

Number of acres the Hugh K. Leatherman emcompasses, including 134 developed acres for the first phase of the project.

47 2,400,000 Operational data

700,000

The first phase of the Leatherman Terminal adds 700,000 TEUs, the equivalent number of 20-foot long containers, to the Port of Charleston’s capacity.

Once the third phase of the Leatherman Terminal opens, the port will have added 2.4 million TEUs, twice the existing capacity of the port.

20,000

The Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal can handle 20,000-TEU containerships, among the largest ships carrying cargo around the globe.

The terminal’s container yard stretches across 47 acres, more than 35 football fields.

169

The terminal’s five ship-to-shore cranes can lift containers 169 feet from the dock of the terminal and can reach 228 feet across the largest of containerships.

1,400

The wharf for the Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal is 1,400 feet long.

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Site development data

8,000,000,000

More than 4 million tons of stone, equivalent to 8 billion pounds, were carried by barges and ships to build the Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal. This process kept approximately 470,000 trucks off of Lowcountry roadways.

236,000,000

Though only a few stacks of containers sit in the Leatherman Terminal container yard, the 47-acre yard is adding 700,000 equivalent containers to the capacity of the S.C. Ports Authority. (Photo/Walter Lagarenne)

The stone provided 6 million yards of fill material, equivalent to 236 million 5-gallon buckets.

384,000,000

More than 384 million pounds of asphalt, 192,000 tons, were laid down to cover the surface of the terminal.

15

The project, which began permitting in 2003, started construction in 2007 and used more than 15 construction contracts.

6,300

The Leatherman Terminal required thousands of wick drains to help remove moisture from the site.

130

Approximately 130 miles of pilings were used to build the new terminal.

5,000,000

125

Contractors ran enough miles of conduit under the Leatherman Terminal site to stretch from Charleston to Columbia at more than 125 miles.

200

Nearly 5 million pounds of reinforcing steel were used during the construction.

More than 200 miles of cable, enough to run from Charleston to Greenville, were pulled for the Leatherman Terminal construction.

105,000

More than 105,000 cubic yards of concrete were poured for the terminal.

Source: S.C. State Ports Authority

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A contractor checks the brakes on one of the ship-to-shore cranes at the Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal the day the first ship arrived. (Photo/Kim McManus)

TERMINAL, from Page 12

ty protecting the site, IT staff or facilities maintenance.

“Everyone had something to do with it… You don’t do anything as individuals here. Everybody is involved,” Newsome said.

More than a thousand contractors put their footprints on the terminal and Melvin said it was a privilege to stand at the port on behalf of the 10,000 peole in the maritime industry who made the terminal work.

“I can’t even put into words what this team has done…. All those people whose names you won’t know, but whose faces and skill are going to be what makes this terminal work so well and really solidify our position in as one of the top 10 ports in the U.S.,” Melvin said.

She applauded the engineering team who delivered a billion-dollar project on time and under budget. Melvin then extended further recognition to the proj-

ect managers helped coordinate every aspect of the Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal’s development.

“They’re usually the unsung heroes,” she said.

Melvin added that because of the project managers, Phase One has completed in seamless fashion. She acknowledged their organization and ability to keep everyone engaged, whether or not a worker’s project was on deck at the time.

“It’s being the keeper of that dance card and making sure that as you approach the end, as we are today, everybody has made their contributions along the way in a coordinated fashion rather than in a linear fashion,” she said. “Otherwise you’d just never get it open.”

That the HLT is opening now is monumental not only for the state, but for the country, which Newsome said hasn’t seen a new terminal built since 2009.

Multiple many partners have played a critical part in the terminal’s

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“And we did it all together.

It’s not just the people that worked for the port and the ILA, the truck drivers, the training companies, the pilots and tugs… But when it comes to something like this, I would say everybody has a tremendous sense of pride. People are happy to get over there and be part of this growth.”

Jim Newsome President and CEO, SCPA

construction, be it federal partners, SCPA workers and the maritime community.

“And we did it all together,” Newsome said. “It’s not just the people that worked for the port and the ILA, the truck drivers, the training companies, the pilots and tugs… But when it comes to something like this, I would say everybody has a tremendous sense of pride. People are happy to get over there and be part of this growth.”

CRBJ

During the last few months, cranes and other equipment were delivered and configured for the operation of the Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal, including these shipto-shore cranes in March. The port also uses rubber-tire gantry cranes for moving containers dockside. (Photo/Walter Lagarenne)

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Line handlers Ricky Stevens and Kenneth Edmonson tie up the Yorktown Express, the first containership to dock at the Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal. (Photo/Kim McManus)

Pride, silence, applause greets 1st containership

By Teri Errico Griffis

S

tgriffis@scbiznews.com

en. Hugh K. Leatherman cracked a bottle of champagne to christen the opening of his namesake terminal April 9 in North Charleston.

He stood beside the entrance sign bearing his name and joked that he was afraid to dent the metal with his strength.

Luckily he was surrounded by engineers and other S.C. Ports Authority workers who cheered him on, happily offering to fix any nicks.

“This is mind boggling. I can’t even comprehend what I’m seeing here,” Leatherman said to the crowd gathered before him.

One of South Carolina’s longest-serving senators, Leatherman was joined by his one of his six children and her daughter. His wife Jean beamed beside him. The couple resides in Florence.

“This is absolutely monumental,”

Leatherman said.

Twenty years in the making, the new Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal was officially open for business after welcoming its first ship, The Yorktown Express, only two hours earlier.

S.C. Ports Authority President and CEO Jim Newsome acknowledged the signature day and said the terminal could not be more aptly named given Leatherman’s support of the project.

“We wouldn’t be here today, we wouldn’t be doing this today if it wasn’t for you. It’s as simple as that,” Newsome said.

“This is going to take us into the future in a way that no one can even imagine.”

Earlier that afternoon, S.C. Ports Authority COO Barbara Melvin stood on the wharf as the terminal prepared to welcome its first ship after years of work and planning. Originally, the ship was supposed to come in the day before, but plans were expedited, and the HLT and its crewmembers were ready.

“All these emotions do well up,” Melvin said. “It’s somewhere between a bundle of nerves and maybe a couple of tears of joy, that kind of thing. It’s pretty amazing when you can deliver a more than billion dollar project one day earlier than you said — and just slightly under budget.”

Throughout the day, the Leatherman Terminal was alive with energy, animated chatter and preparations. Workers gathered in vivid yellow vests to regale accomplishments, snap photos and countlessly question, “Can you see it yet?”

The pride was contagious between Melvin, Engineering Project Manager Lucy Terza or line handlers Kenneth Edmonson and Ricky Stevens.

“I’m just proud and grateful. I’m proud to be a part of this team and to have helped this come to fruition. No one did this in a vacuum. Everybody pitched in,” Terza said.

As the ship sailed closer, the crowd

shuffled down the wharf, watching tugboats turn the ship and push it toward the dock. Crew on the boat called to shore.

The dock workers called back.

At 3 p.m., as the ship inched from 50 feet away from the Charleston waterfront, the sounds went silent.

The SCPA workers stood quietly, soaking in the monumental moment. One worker rubbed his arm, covered in goosebumps. Another exhaled a choked-back sigh. It was the quietest the bustling port had been the entire day and you could make out every finger tap as they pressed camera buttons.

Five minutes later, a round of claps broke the silence.

The Yorktown Express officially had docked.

Terza looked around at her colleagues.

She said it was a privilege to work on the Leatherman Terminal and to witness the incredible number of people who touched the project, no matter their roles.

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The Yorktown Express unloaded roughly 1,000 containers at the Leatherman Terminal, many of which were filled with automotive cargo. (Photo/Kim McManus)

“So many people have worked so hard on this project and personally sacrificed because they really believe in the mission of the Ports Authority and this positive impact that this project will have on the Lowcountry and the whole state,” Terza said.

That’s who the new terminal was built for, she said, and Terza is grateful to be able to serve the people of South Carolina.

The SCPA’s newest terminal was delivered at a time when not just the country, but the entire world is talking about reliability in the supply chain, Melvin said. Whether people have witnessed empty grocery store shelves, waited anxiously for COVID-19 vaccines to arrive or watched as the Ever Given became entrenched in the Suez Canal, the experience is global.

“The whole concept of supply chain reliability has not just come to the forefront in our industry, but really it’s now coming to the forefront for the average person,” Melvin said. “I think delivering this type of a project at a time when it

couldn’t be more needed is almost overwhelming for us.”

The Yorktown Express was selected as the first ship for a number of reasons, in particular because it showcased South Carolina as a juggernaut in the automotive sector, Melvin said. The 3,237 TEU containership is owned by Hapag-Lloyd USA LLC and homeported in Yorktown, Va. The ship spent one day and one hour in Charleston before heading out to sea for Port Everglades, Fla. Of the 1,000 containers ready to be unloaded at the Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal, many contained automotive cargo.

“You can’t be a successful state in attracting foreign direct investment or having import distribution centers and transload facilities put capital in the ground without infrastructure like this,” Melvin said. “To put 700,000 TEUs in here for availability at this time, we couldn’t be making a better statement to the world that South Carolina is open for business.”

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An access road with panoramic views

The port access road snakes down from Interstate 26 to provide a panoramic view of the entire Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal along with the Wando Welch Terminal across the Cooper River. (Photo/Teri Errico Griffis; Map/Google Maps)

By Teri Errico Griffis

T

tgriffis@scbiznews.com

he crew at the Leatherman Terminal finds it a bit funny how many people turn off the new Port Access Road thinking they can sneak around traffic — only to find the road dead ends at the new terminal.

The new four-mile access road, located at exit 218 off Interstate 26, provides trucks and port-related traffic direct access to the terminal by bridging over railroad tracks, Meeting Street and Spruill Avenue.

Construction of the road, performed

by Lane Construction Corp. in conjunction with the S.C. Department of Transportation, began in November 2016 and cost $220 million. The road replaced an old partial interchange with a modern and improved roadway that will help balance traffic in and out of the terminal, Lane said in planning material.

“Included in the project’s purpose is the intent to safely integrate container terminal traffic with existing traffic; support

local and regional planning policies and strategies; and minimizing adverse impacts on communities and the environment,” S.C. Transportation Secretary Christy A. Hall said.

In addition to the I-26 directional interchange, the project consists of a Bainbridge Connector Road, the extension of Stromboli Avenue and associated roadway improvements to surface streets to serve the proposed Naval Base Terminal in Charleston County, Hall said.

Another aspect of the terminal access road that doesn’t get as much recognition is the panoramic view it provides of the Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal, said S.C. Ports Authority President and CEO Jim Newsome. As you drive the overpass and make the turn in, you can see the entire length of the working terminal, in addition to the Wando Welch Terminal in the background.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen an access terminal like that where really the whole terminal is visible. It’s really something,” Newsome said. “When you see a 16,000 TEU container ship out there, it’s going to really make an impression on people.”

S.C. Ports Authority COO Barbara Melvin said the view of the port against the open ocean puts the whole project in perspective.

“I think it will be a great sense of pride for the state. And I know it’s a great sense of pride for the employees,” she said.

Every time there is an economic development announcement in South Carolina related to the port, directly or indirectly,

employees feel a sense of accomplishment and genuinely want that company to succeed, Melvin said.

“The people here take very seriously that the work that they do and know that it’s impactful to people’s lives on a daily basis, whether that’s from the economic perspective or just making sure that there are goods and services available in South Carolina without delay,” she said. “It’s a pretty great reminder of the impact that this transportation business has on the Southeast.”

CRBJ

Reach Teri Errico Griffis at 843-849-3144.

April 19-May 2, 2021

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www.charlestonbusiness.com 25

New terminal impacts parts, not vehicle exports

By Molly Hulsey

J

mhulsey@scbiznews.com

ust like the flow of water from a mountain spring, to the river, a tributary and then back out to sea, one only has to follow the S.C. Ports system’s trail to the upcountry to know more about the harbor.

March marked the port’s highest container handling record in history. February saw Inland Port Greer move record volumes. BMW’s Plant Spartanburg retains its preeminence as the nation’s top auto exporter, reporting a higher production of hybrid plug-in vehicles than ever before.

BMW Corporate Communications Manager Sky Foster said the BMW Group aims for a 50% increase of electric car sales, including hybrid models, in 2021.

The first container come through the Hugh Leatherman Terminal hailed from Inland Port Greer, filled with BMW cargo.

Foster said the additional 700,000 TEUs of capacity — a 20-foot equivalent unit is a standard measure of cargo capacity used in the shipping industry — provided by the new terminal should not impact BMW’s finished vehicle exports to the Port of Charleston, but BMW’s fin-

The first container brought to the Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal came from the Upstate, loaded with BMW automotive parts, earlier this month. (Photo/English Purcell)

ished vehicle exports will impact what is coming through the new terminal.

“The Hugh Leatherman Terminal will provide opportunities for BMW and its suppliers to increase container volume of imported and exported parts to the Inland Port in Greer,” Foster said. “The terminal will also secure on-time delivery for all future container needs using the Port of Charleston.”

The S.C. Ports Authority expanded

Charleston’s Columbus Street Terminal in response to BMW’s escalating exports a few years ago, Foster said.

John Lummus, president and CEO of Upstate SC Alliance, said roughly 70% of exported value from Inland Port Greer contains BMW products bound abroad.

“I know you’ve seen that BMW is the largest exporter of automobiles in the United States,” he told SC Biz News. “And to be able to compete and do that, we have

to have a port that handles that and continues to grow.”

Lummus, along with groups like the Upstate Chamber Coalition and Greenville Chamber, have been a vocal supporters of a General Assembly bill that allocates $550 million in economic bonds into Ports Authority coffers for continued infrastructure projects such as a near-dock rail, which is non-existent at the port, and a barge linking the Wando Welch and Hugh K. Leatherman terminals for ease of access to inland railways.

“The port, in the overall big picture, is just so critically important to the Upstate,” he said. “Fifty-two percent of all traffic going and out of the port is from the Upstate. The largest users are mainly from the Upstate: BMW, Michelin, TTI and other Upstate companies. Just Greenville County alone has about $7.5 billion in economic impact from the port; Spartanburg: about an $8.5 billion economic impact each year. It’s just an incredible asset.”

Citing a 2019 study from University of South Carolina, he noted $32.8 billion economic impact streams uphill to the state’s 10-county corner from the ports system as a whole.

CRBJ

Reach Molly Hulsey at 864-720-1222 or @mollyhulsey_gsa on Twitter.

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THE LEATHERMAN TERMINAL

www.charlestonbusiness.com

April 19-May 2, 2021

Port restores island habitat under Clean Water Act

By Molly Hulsey

T

mhulsey@scbiznews.com

wo years ago, the island lying beneath Charleston’s Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge would have looked almost unrecognizable to today’s visitors.

A slurry of sediment and water oozed across the island’s southern tip as millions of cubic tons of silt from the latest ports project rushed in from a pipeline, held in by dikes near the water’s edge. A tangle of invasive plants and trees grappled with indigenous marsh grasses, choking the natives as they reached skyward.

That was Drum Island before Mark Messersmith, S.C. Ports Authority’s permitting manager, and $3.5 million united to launch the port’s lesser-known construction project of the decade — this one built to foster a natural ecosystem instead of just an economic one.

“The south side of the island had been used historically for dredging material disposal but had not been used for a couple of decades,” he said. “So, when we were going through the design for the Hugh Leatherman Terminal, there were some inadvertent impacts to saltwater wetlands as a result of that project at the old Navy base. And so, to counter those impacts, we proposed a mitigation plan

to create a 22-acre, brand-new salt marsh out of the portion of Drum Island that is south of Ravenel bridge.”

Now, almost 80% of the island is covered in vegetation after the team planted more than 106,000 native marsh plants, Messersmith said. Fiddler crabs swarm channels re-excavated by Messersmith’s team, and the spot has since become a haven for estuary bird species and the Audubon Society as herons of all hues, clapper rails and snowy egrets fish for prey in the spartina grasses.

“We actually excavated about 110,000 cubic yards of dirt from that island, and in doing that, we created these creek and channels running through there,” he said, laying the groundwork for what he calls a thriving salt marsh.

A hard day on the job involved redesigning a creek mouth “on the fly,” skirting the bones of previous bridges with the aid of Cayce subcontractors L-J Inc. Still, he added that this snarl was rather benign, and the construction crew finished on time and under budget.

The Drum Island restoration project was fueled by a condition of the 1972 federal Clean Water Act that requires companies that impact national waters and wetland properties to mitigate that damage by recreating or preserving new wetland habitats.

The law is long-standing but contentious for some, especially developers.

Still, Messersmith said that he’s thankful the law enables the port system to give back — both economically and ecologically — to the extensive harbor property it requires to remain functional and keep expanding.

“There’s always controversy around that kind of thing,” he said. “The way the port sees it is that we’re always going to make an impact in the work that we do, it’s just the nature of where we work. We work on the interface between the water environment and the land environment.

No matter what we do, there are going to be some impacts and construction, but we also recognize that we’re users of the harbor, and we’re a part of the community here. We have impacts too on the resources in our community, in our watershed; we should compensate for those impacts in a quantifiable way.”

The success of the Drum Island project may also set a precedent for future environmental restoration initiatives in the area.

The S.C. Ports Authority continues to use acres of marsh as silt dumping areas for ongoing projects, including the north of Drum Island, Morris Island, the Clouder Creek area and Daniel Island for Hugh Leatherman dredge materials. Addition-

al dredge materials are pumped out to an offshore Environmental Protection Agency dumping site, which undergoes the most stringent vetting after removal from local sites.

Every year, billions of cubic yards must be dredged to maintain Charleston harbor as a viable shipping channel. This occurs even when the deepening project isn’t in full swing. The solid materials drift to the bottom, and the clear water cycles back into the sea.

The Drum Island project remains unusual from some Clean Water Act sites since the S.C. Ports Authority restored the natural habitat of the property previously used as a dumping site instead of conserving additional property. Also, the size of the restored property, 22 acres, is double that of the Leatherman dumping site.

“Sometimes you get a better value for the habitat over all by going away from the project site,” he said. “Certainly, if we had built a 22-acre marsh just adjacent to the new terminal there, it wouldn’t be as valuable as having it where it is, a little bit further away, but still it’s right there. You can see the terminal from the island.”

CRBJ

Reach Molly Hulsey at 864-720-1222 or @mollyhulsey_gsa on Twitter.

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THE LEATHERMAN TERMINAL

April 19-May 2, 2021

www.charlestonbusiness.com 27

Breaking up contracts to encourage local participation

By Teri Errico Griffis

I

tgriffis@scbiznews.com

nstead of developing the Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal with one large contract, the S.C. Ports Authority broke the project into multiple contracts, allowing for 80% of the work to be done

by South Carolina companies.

“We think it’s pretty amazing,” Senior Director of Engineering and Facilities Walter Lagarenne said. “We can say the terminal’s built by South Corolinians for South Carolina.”

The SCPA’s decision was spurred by two driving forces, Lagarene said. First, so many local companies were interested, but couldn’t handle the work required for one large contract. With smaller projects, the hope was more regional businesses could participate.

“The other thing was we didn’t want to put all our eggs in one basket,” Lagarene said. “You have a single general contractor and he’s got everybody else as subcontractors. If something happens to the general contractor then you really don’t have a lot of recourse and you’re stuck.”

The contracts were therefore broken into logical groups that allowed the SCPA to work on multiple paths simultaneously and bring more resources to the table.

The wharf was constructed by Cape

Romain / McLean, A Joint Venture. The $54 million project took a little over two years to complete.

Phase I side development was another contract, and the largest the SCPA has ever issued at $180 million, Engineering and Project Manager Butch Weber said.

Banks Construction Co. is handling the contract, which includes most of the utilities, the pavement, chassis yard and all of the underground infrastructure, among other parts.

“Electric lights, fencing, anything you see that’s not really building and booth is off that contact,” Lagarenne said.

The terminal’s buildings and booths, canopy structures and the operational building — the largest building on the terminal — were then contracted by Samet Corp.

SCPA President and CEO Jim Newsome said he always prefers to work with South Carolina Companies in the construction of any facility, especially as a government-owned business.

“The people of South Carolina are shareholders,” he said. “Those companies deserve the first shot if they’re capable of doing the work.”

He added that the SCPA is about creating jobs, whether on the docks or through construction. On any given day, there are around 700 people working for the ports,

T S O M L A C I M O N ECOted waste contractor la

The steel frame of the operations building at the Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal was assembled more than one year ago. Many contractors worked on different parts of the project to make the terminal a reality. (Photo/ Walter Lagarenne)

including IT, security, crane operators or engineers.

Engineering Project Manager Lucy Terza has been working on the HLT for more than two years and has a background in structural engineering.

She said she’s amazed at the breadth of engineering she’s come in contact with on this project. There’s water systems, fire, the complicated electrical

design, marine structures, pavement design.

“You name it it’s out there,” she said.

“From my perspective, it’s incredible to see everybody come together, all these engineers with their expertise. We have such a great team and we’re able to handle this very complicated project.”

CRBJ

Reach Teri Errico Griffis at 843-849-3144.

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www.charlestonbusiness.com

THE LEATHERMAN TERMINAL

April 19-May 2, 2021

Engineers create clean slate for site development

By Teri Errico Griffis

P

ZPMC Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., were thoughtfully designed to reach across the tallest ship that could fit under the Ravenel Bridge.

An additional 25 rubber tire gantry cranes, also manufactured by ZPMC, tower over the terminal along with eight empty container handlers.

Then there’s a chassis yard, a 47-acre container yard, and a refrigerated container yard. An operations building with offices, other key facilities and booths are all accessible by the new Port Access Road. The HLT also boasts a new operating system and enhanced technology for efficient operations and speed-to-market for customers.

tgriffis@scbiznews.com

hase I of the Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal is completing on time and nearly $50 million under budget — and a small team of seven engineers oversaw this massive project.

The 286-acre plot of land on the North Charleston Navy Yard has remained vacant for years, with all but two dozen buildings and a lone dredge disposal in one corner.

Today, the land houses a new world full of cranes, offices, transportation check-in booths and more built from the pluff mud up.

“There’s a lot of pride and ownership from all, all the contractors and everybody involved,” Senior Director of Engineering and Facilities Walter Lagarenne said of the mega project that he called the HLT a signature of Charleston.

“As engineers, these are the kind of jobs you dream of,” he said.

At full buildout, the Hugh K. Leatherman facility will be a three-berth terminal.

The $1 billion Phase I has a 1,400-foot berth that can handle vessels carrying up to 20,000-TEUs — an industry measurement equivalent to a 20-foot container — and provides an added 700,000 TEU capacity. The single berth also will enable

Break it down

The Leatherman Terminal’s ship-to-shore cranes can extend 228 feet from the terminal deck across the water to unload some of the largest ships handling cargo today. (Photo/Kim McManus)

the SCPA to handle four, 14,000 TEU vessels simultaneously with three at Wando Welch Terminal and one at HLT. Full build out of the second and third phase will allow even more capacity at the port in years to come.

Lagarenne said the entire terminal could have been built at once, but it would have cost significantly more and would have been unusable for years. By

breaking the project up into phases, the HLT is ready to receive ships now.

Located at the wharf are five of the tallest ship-to-shore cranes on the East Coast, measuring 169 feet compared to Wando Welch Terminal’s 155-foot cranes.

Ed Stehmeyer, project and design manager, jokes that everyone on the East Coast touts having the tallest cranes.

The five cranes, fabricated by Shanghai’s

To get to the stage the terminal is in, engineers needed a clean slate and planned out the development into two stages, general manager Butch Weber said.

“This was a Navy base when we showed up and had over two dozen structures where we’re sitting today,” he said.

“We had to demolish all those … and get it back down to its natural state before we really began the site prep.”

Some of the pieces were already in place following the Global Gateway plans from the late 1990s.

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THE LEATHERMAN TERMINAL

April 19-May 2, 2021

Prior to HLT’s build in North Charleston, the SCPA tried to develop a port expansion on Daniel Island. Environmental work, permitting and planning were started, but eventually the S.C. Ports Authority’s board determined there were too many environmental and community issues to build there, Lagarenne said.

When the Navy Yard was slated to close in the late 1990s, Lagarenne said the 286-acre area was suggested for a new terminal instead.

With the land acquired, the team spent 2007 to 2018 preparing for development with site preparation. Weber added that Charleston is not the best place to perform heavy civil construction, particularly the HLT site which had 40 to 70 feet of pluff mud beneath the surface.

“You have to try to consolidate all that pluff mud so it doesn’t continue to sink once you develop it,” Weber said.

Engineers placed weights on the soil to force the water out and consolidate the ground. More than 6,000 miles of wick drains have been laid out so far, and Weber said engineers pushed out 100 years of sediment in two years’ time.

Next, the team used a surcharging method of bringing in materials to create a stable and smooth a surface.

“For fill material, we used all the buildings we demolished, anything that we could recycle: asphalt pavement, the bricks, concrete. Anything we could use as fill, we used,” Weber said. “We recycled

www.charlestonbusiness.com 29

extra material off the top and roll it over into Phase II to begin settling.

Equipped for anything

Seven engineers oversaw the $1 billion first phase of the Leatherman Terminal that began construction in 2019 and opened in April, including (from left) project manager Adam Davisson, project manager Butch Weber, permitting manager Mark Messersmith, project manager Lucy Terza, project and design manager Ed Stehmeyer, electrical engineer Paul DeVeaux, and Walter Lagarenne, director of engineering and facilities.

all the other components that we could.”

Further recycling efforts included barging in 2 million yards of good fill that had been placed on Daniel Island for the previous terminal.

Contractors shipped in an additional 4 million tons of stone from Canada — an outside the box suggestion from a contractor that saved the project significant money and time.

Charleston isn’t the biggest construction market as far as availability of trucks and construction personnel, Weber said.

Several roadblocks stood in the way of transporting the stones to the HLT. Area trucking companies were concerned they wouldn’t be able to supply enough material and get it to North Charleston fast

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enough. Additionally, permitting only allowed the SCPA to transport 25% of material over the road to minimize the impact to neighborhoods.

The contractor created a plan to ship stones 60 tons at a time, which significantly decreased the amount of trucks needed for transportation.

“By bringing material in from Daniel Island and shipping the stones in, we’ve only trucked in less than 15% of material,” Weber said.

Overall, engineers brought in almost 6 million yards of fill material, or as Weber compares it, 240 million five-gallon buckets full of material.

Once the consolidation of all that material is complete, engineers strip the

Ordering equipment also required simultaneous planning. Since fabrication of the ship-to-shore cranes takes more than two years, the SCPA ordered the equipment three years ago, Stehmeyer said.

“We have to work with our guys and find out exactly what they need, and the work with the guys who are designing the wharf to make sure they have everything built right,” he said.

The equipment was custom built and configured on site for the Leatherman Terminal.

Stehmeyer said it’s not very often someone gets to see a project from start to finish — or at least to the stage HLT is at today. Most U.S. shipping terminals are added to existing ones, whereas HLT has been built from the pluff mud up.

“To see it come all the way through and to get ready to start unloading containers is really exciting. We have put a lot of work and effort into this,” he said.

Weber has been at the S.C. Ports Authority for 14 years and said the moment the first ship arrives will be special.

“I finally get to see that ship come in very soon,” he said. “It’ll probably be a little bit emotional. It’ll be quite a sight. It’s been a long time coming.”

CRBJ

Reach Teri Errico Griffis at 843-849-3144.

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www.charlestonbusiness.com

THE LEATHERMAN TERMINAL

April 19-May 2, 2021

Leatherman Terminal cranes use green technology, reduce emissions

By Alexandria Ng

W

ang@scbiznews.com

ith the opening of the Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal, S.C. Ports has kept environmentalism on the forefront of its efforts.

A large part of this comes from three main equipment purchases for moving containers around.

S.C. Ports has acquired 25 hybrid rubber-tired gantry cranes for $45 million, five electric ship-to-shore cranes for $59 million and eight empty-container handlers for $2.5 million, all of which incorporate different types of green technology in its operations.

“When this project was contemplated back in their early mid-2000s, a big topic in our region was port emissions and how we can reduce those over time,” said Ed Stehmeyer, S.C. Ports’ general manager of projects and design. “The Hugh Leatherman Terminal project kicked off a lot of the things that we’ve done here to reduce our emissions and increase our energy efficiency, and that was that was kind of the impetus for a lot of the efforts that we’ve made over time, and we continue those moving forward.”

Built by Chinese engineering company, ZPMC, the RTG cranes are the largest in S.C. Ports’ fleet, measuring 88 feet tire-to-tire and able to handle containers

stacked six high.

Using battery-hybrid technology, these cranes will move containers around the terminal running 100% on electric battery power. This technology hasn’t been widely implemented in the U.S. yet, Stehmeyer said.

Once the battery gets below 20% to 30%, a smaller diesel generator will kick in to recharge the battery, significantly reduce idling time.

“You’re not really using so much power to operate the RTG,” Stehmeyer said. “You’re really just using that power to regenerate power for the batteries themselves, which do a majority of the lifting, so it’s a lot less frequent use of a diesel regenerator than you would have on a normal RTG.” The batteries, supplied by Norway-based Corvus Energy in its first U.S. shipment, are expected to reduce fuel consumption by around 70% when compared to conventional diesel port cranes.

They are powered by Corvus’ Orca Energy Storage System, which supplies about 160 kilowatt hours on board each crane.

According to Sveinung Odegard, vice president of sales in the Americas, these batteries are commonly used in the marine and offshore industry and should last about 10 years before they have to be replaced.

“It’s a very dynamic system that

Rubber-tired gantry cranes used at the Leatherman Terminal are hybrid machines, using a combination of battery and diesel power. The cranes also recapture some of the energy used when moving containers. (Photo/Kim McManus)

always optimizes the engines whenever the engine is running,” Odegard said.

“As soon as batteries are fully charged, it (the diesel generator) will shut down, and then they go and use energy independence.”

The cranes will also use regenerative braking energy, in which the machine can recapture and store its own energy as

electricity as a container is lowered. Reusing its own energy reduces the amount of power required from the generator as well.

With a smaller generator that runs fewer hours, maintenance costs will go down, as will fuel consumption, particulate matter, greenhouse gas and other air emissions from exhaust.

Additionally, the terminal will use electric-powered ship-to-shore cranes, eliminating emissions from those machines as well. With 169 feet of lift height above the wharf deck and an outreach of 228 feet, these cranes will be used to move containers on and off some of the biggest container ships on the East Coast.

To track the effectiveness of environmental efforts, S.C. Ports has sponsored two air monitoring stations, one of which is on the terminal itself. S.C. Ports will also be regularly monitoring equipment battery health every quarter, as well as maintenance costs, emission levels and diesel consumption to ensure that everything meets its intended goal.

“We want to make sure they (the cranes) are just as powerful as their diesel counterparts, so while we were accepting a hybrid solution, we weren’t going to downgrade the performance or speed at all,” Stehmeyer said.

CRBJ

Reach Alexandria Ng at 843-849-3124.

Looking up Lula Smith, 3.5 years old, looks up at the Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal sign during a moment when she and her grandfather, Sen. Hugh K. Leatherman, stopped by the terminal in April for the official opening of the 286-acre terminal and the arrival of the first ship. The state senator broke a bottle of champagne across the bow of the sign with Jean Leatherman, his wife, and Amy Leatherman Smith, Lula’s mother, along with S.C. Ports Authority officials cheering him on.

(Photo/Kim McManus)