EAST COAST PORTS\\\ >> 10


services and inland ports. Three short months aſter the


Bayonne Bridge’s June completion, on September 7, the CMA CGM Theodore Roosevelt, a 14,414-TEU vessel, called on the port of New York and New Jersey. A week later, it was seen in Charleston, where it handled 3,000 container moves at the Wando Welch Terminal. Before the Roosevelt’s arrival, the largest ship to call Charleston was the 13,208-TEU OOCL France. These days, 18 of the 24 weekly container vessel services calling on Charleston are with ships too large to transit the Panama Canal before its expansion. The Bayonne Bridge project,


which was funded exclusively with Port Authority funds, was three years in the planning and four in the building. And, by the way, it’s not done yet, noted Bethann Rooney, assistant director of the Port Commerce Department of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. “The second span for vehicular


traffic is still underway,” she explained. But the aspect of the project providing navigational clearance for vessels is done. The full project is scheduled to be completed in 2019.


Issue 8 2017 - FBJNA “[Infrastructure projects] involve


assessment, planning, and designing. Then you have to get political and


legislative support for funding and get all of the permitting in place.” -- John Rhinehart, VPA


be deepened to 52 feet, the better to accommodate larger vessels. The port has been preparing for


the deployment of larger vessels, too, with upgrades to terminal infrastructure and equipment.


A wharf strengthening and modernization project at the Wando Welch Terminal will be completed in the spring of 2018, and the Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal, a new container terminal, is under construction. Charleston harbor aims to


become the deepest on the east coast, and it’s not just a matter of pride. “This is an exporting port and exports are heavy,” said Newsome. Chemicals and forest products, in other words, are


heavier than finished goods. “Weight is what determines


the required depth,” Newsome added. “We feel this harbor needs to be a couple of feet deeper. We believe an 18,000-TEU ship will call here sometime next year.” The SCPA has invested close


to $100 million retrofitting Wando Welch, the port’s biggest terminal, to develop a 3,700-foot wharf. The pilings under the wharf are to be strengthened and


larger container cranes


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have been ordered, to the tune of yet another $100 million. The Leatherman terminal is to be built in three phases, with completions stretching from 2020 to the 2030s. The SCPA is building a


second inland port in Dillon, near the North Carolina border, to complement the successful Inland Port Greer which opened in 2013. Inland Port Dillon is to be served by


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with the big-ship trend.” In the case of NYNJ, the Bayonne


Bridge situation clued the port into what the future held. “When ships got to 7,000 TEU and started hitting the underside of the bridge,” related Rooney, “we began a dialog with the ocean carriers and in those discussions we learned that ships would be getting ever larger.” When the Port Authority the new bridge


designed was being told that it ship sizes


would cap out at 12,000 TEU. That’s now ancient history. The


The Port of Wilmington is 284 acres with an inside harbor channel depth of 42 ſt. M.L.L.W. (NC Ports photo)


Infrastructure projects, being


strategic, take a long time to get them off the ground. “I’d say it’s about five years on average,” said John Rhinehart, CEO of the Virginia Port Authority. “It involves assessments, planning, and designing. Then you have to get political and legislative support for funding and get all of the permitting in place.” That puts ports at a deficit


compared to the shipping lines they are meant to serve. “Ships can be ordered with a lot less lead time than ports can build infrastructure,” said Jim Newsome, president and CEO of the South Carolina Ports Authority. “It’s fair to say that U.S. ports have been playing catch-up


approach taken by NYNJ, given the breathtaking speed at which container ships were growing, was to take a long look into the future. “We decided we needed to go well beyond the minimum capabilities the carriers were telling us,” said Rooney.


Coinciding Announcement


The visit of the Theodore Roosevelt to Charleston happened to coincide with an announcement by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to let a $47-million construction contract to initiate the dredging of the port’s entrance channel to 54 feet. The main shipping channel will


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