Charleston port completes $23M Wando Welch Terminal project

The Port of Charleston has completed a 14-month project to install a new toe wall at Wando Welch Terminal, strengthening it to handle bigger ships and maintain deeper depths, the South Carolina Ports Authority announced this week.

CSX and Norfolk Southern Railway serve Wando Welch, SC Ports' largest container terminal.

The new steel wall runs along the terminal's wharf. Additional dredging in front of the terminal reinforced Charleston Harbor’s 52-foot-depth, port officials said in a press release.

SC Ports' engineering team managed the project, with WSP USA leading design and Mead and Hunt overseeing construction. Russell Marine LLC installed steel sheet piles underwater and buried them into the channel bottom to reinforce the existing slope underneath the wharf. Marinex Construction Inc. completed the berth deepening.

The toe wall project and dredging cost $23 million, with $11.2 million coming from a 2019 U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration Port Infrastructure Development Program grant.