South Carolina Ports Authority (SCPA) announced yesterday that the Board has approved a contract for the investigation and excavation of historical resources on the Yellow House Creek Borrow Site, a location from which soil fill material will be mined for construction of the Leatherman Terminal.
The work will be performed in coordination with the State Historic Preservation Office.
Also, two construction contracts were approved for the Wando Welch Terminal, including ground improvement for the expansion of the refrigerated container service area and annual berth maintenance dredging.
The green light was also given for asphalt pavement of 15 acres at Union Pier Terminal.
The announcement followed SCPA report of nearly five percent increase in container volume since its fiscal year began in July.
SCPA moved 145,092 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) in January. Fiscal year-to-date volumes reached 1.12 million TEUs last month, an increase from 1.07 million TEUs handled during the same period last year.
Pier container volume, or boxes handled, totaled 81,993 containers in January. Pier container volume is up 3.1 percent fiscal year over year, with 633,167 containers handled to date.
“ January volumes were slightly down, which we expected due to strong comparisons against last year’s performance as well as weakness overseas, ” said Jim Newsome, SCPA president and CEO.
According to Newsome, volumes will likely remain fairly flat during the next several months until the spring, which is traditionally a strong season for SCPA.