Project

 

The potential for a marine container terminal in Jasper County, South Carolina, was recognized in the 1990s and the idea began to take shape during the next decade.

The project’s proximity to Georgia’s Garden City terminal, a market area competitively served by both Georgia and South Carolina ports, and the surrounding logistics industrial community led to an Intergovernmental Agreement between the states forming the Jasper Ocean Terminal Joint Project Office in 2008, and subsequently the Jasper Ocean Terminal Joint Venture in 2015.

Description

The proposed JOT will be a state-of-the-art marine container terminal with a capacity of 7 million twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs); located on an approximately 1,500-acre site across from Elba Island on the north bank of the Savannah River in Jasper County, South Carolina.

Once constructed, the terminal is anticipated to increase the region’s capacity to efficiently handle the forecasted cargo throughput for 35 years, through the use of efficient and sustainable technologies to transfer containerized cargo between container ships, over-the-road trucks, and intermodal rail cars. Elements of the terminal include a pile-supported wharf to accommodate approximately eight Neo-Panamax, 14,000 to 20,000 TEU containerships, a container storage yard, gate facilities to process entering and exiting over-the-road trucks, administrative buildings, and equipment service facilities.

Terminal operations will be performed by ship-to-shore cranes on the wharf, rail or rubber-tired gantry cranes within the container and intermodal yards, and horizontal transport equipment such as terminal hostlers or shuttle carriers. The proposed JOT will also include a water tower, underground utilities, electrical substations, backup generators, high-mast lighting, stormwater management facilities, perimeter fencing, and parking areas for personal vehicles.

Several regional transportation infrastructure improvements are proposed to serve the JOT, including a new four-lane divided highway corridor between the terminal and U.S. 17, a double track rail corridor between the terminal and existing CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern rail lines, and a new rail bridge across the Savannah River. The new terminal will also require navigation improvements to the berths, access channel, and a turning basin to provide vessel access to the terminal.

Separately, a feasibility study will be undertaken to study the potential national benefits, environmental impacts, and capital costs of modifying the Savannah River to better accommodate the future vessel fleet expected to call on JOT and other terminals on the river, including container vessels with capacities of 18,000 TEUs or more.

Objectives

The purpose of the Joint Venture is to plan, design, construct, and operate a maritime container terminal port facility on the lower Savannah River to be owned jointly in equal portions by the GPA and SCPA.

  • The Joint Venture Agreement has established the following goals and objectives in furtherance of its purpose:

  • The Jasper Ocean Terminal shall have a handling capacity of seven million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU)

  • The Jasper Ocean Terminal shall be a deep water port that can accommodate the draft and beam requirements of a fully loaded 14,000 to 20,000 TEU container vessel without tidal restriction.  Accordingly, the Savannah River shall be dredged and modified to a depth and width, up to and contiguous with the western edge of where the Jasper Ocean Terminal as authorized by legislation and recommended by the US Army Corps of Engineers study, which will provide for simultaneous inbound and outbound ship traffic.

  • The Jasper Ocean Terminal shall have on or near terminal rail access by Norfolk Southern Railway and CSX Transportation.

  • The Jasper Ocean Terminal shall have highway access sufficient to serve its requirements throughout its useful life.

  • The planning, completion and operation of the Jasper Ocean Terminal shall be a collaborative effort of the GPA and SCPA intended to serve the best interests of the States of Georgia and South Carolina.

  • The Joint Venture, through SCPA and GPA, shall obtain appropriate permits from the applicable federal and state authorities for dredging, terminal construction, and landside infrastructure in a timely manner consistent with anticipated growth and future requirements.

  • The Jasper Ocean Terminal shall be completed in phases that must be reasonably justified based on current capacity and container traffic demand scenarios which establish the economic viability of additional terminal capacity. The initial phase will be sequenced with improvements to or construction of facilities existing or permitted by the GPA or the SCPA.

  • The Jasper Ocean Terminal shall be managed in accordance with industry best practices and the operating model currently in use by GPA and SCPA to serve the best interests of the States of Georgia and South Carolina.

  • GPA and SCPA shall provide in equal shares funding of the Joint Venture operations through the NEPA permitting phase and finalization of plans for design, construction, and financing, and all other costs of construction of the permitted Jasper Ocean Terminal and any supporting infrastructure to include offsite rail, road, and utility requirements