June 2020
A “city” is how South Carolina Ports Authority project manager Butch Weber characterizes the new Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal in North Charleston. And it’s an apt description. The program to redevelop a shuttered Navy base and dredge spoil disposal basin into a 286-acre international shipping complex involves creating buildings, storage and rail transfer facilities, utilities, street infrastructure and a wharf equipped with massive ship-to-shore cranes capable of servicing the next generation of oceangoing container vessels.
With a projected annual capacity of 2.4 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) at full build-out, the Leatherman Terminal will double the Port of Charleston’s existing container handling capabilities, enhancing its ability to compete with other East Coast maritime facilities for international shipping business facilitated by the expanded Panama Canal.