A major Jasper County project might come a decade later than expected

A $5-billion project that would transform Jasper County by bringing it much needed jobs and economic activity should continue to move forward on its expected schedule, area state lawmakers told port officials this week.

But an updated Jasper Ocean Terminal timeline provided by state Ports Authority officials this month has it coming a decade later than lawmakers envision. The confusion resulted in a back-and-forth between delegates and port officials this week that culminated in a meeting Thursday.

The much-anticipated Jasper port won’t be needed until at least 2035 based on updated capacity estimates at ports in Charleston and Savannah, Ports Authority President and CEO Jim Newsome said in an email to lawmakers this week.

Supporters of the Jasper project had hoped the first phase would open for business by 2025. And former Gov. Nikki Haley said at a spirited news conference in Ridgeland in 2016 she expected to see the terminal operating sooner than that.

Construction of the port in southernmost Jasper County — a combined effort of Georgia and South Carolina — would create hundreds of jobs and millions in wages.

State Rep. Shannon Erickson, R-Beaufort, said in a letter this week she was “shocked and dismayed” to hear the later date from port officials this month and that she had met with Gov. Henry McMaster to express concern.

“The directive you have is to develop the JOT, delaying it for a decade does not sound to me like that is what is happening,” Erickson wrote Newsome on Tuesday.

In another letter to Newsome this week, Jasper County delegates asked he continue seeking necessary permits and quoted state law that says the ports agency must “take all action necessary to expeditiously develop a port in Jasper County.”

In an email response provided to The Beaufort Gazette and The Island Packet, Newsome told Erickson the authority’s message has been the Jasper port wouldn’t proceed until “existing and planned capacity” is reached at the Port of Charleston.

That includes waiting for the completion of the Hugh K. Leatherman Sr. Terminal in North Charleston, the final phase of which is expected to finish in 2032, Newsome wrote.

Additionally, the Georgia Ports Authority is working to find room for 3.5 million more shipping containers in the upper Savannah River, and S.C. port officials believe Charleston can handle up to 1 million more containers than originally estimated after finishing the Leatherman Terminal, Newsome said.

That means the initial phase of the Jasper port will not be needed “until 2035 or after,” he wrote. Consultants estimated in 2013 the neighboring ports would reach capacity by about 2025.

“It is an enormous capital challenge to realize new port capacity and it can only be built when needed and customers are willing to utilize it,” Newsome wrote in the email to lawmakers and his board members Tuesday.

After the written exchanges, Beaufort and Jasper county lawmakers met with port officials and their attorneys in Columbia on Thursday morning.

The delegates argued that permitting for the port should proceed so that associated rail and highway infrastructure needed to access the port will be in place, said state Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort. The Ports Authority will begin working with Jasper County lawmakers on the necessary infrastructure for the terminal, Newsome said Friday through an agency spokeswoman.

Market conditions should ultimately drive when the new port is built, Davis said.

He said the Jasper location won’t be subject to bridge height and channel depth restrictions Charleston and Savannah face.

“The private sector is going to drive demand for that port, because it’s going to be far superior to anything Charleston and Savannah have to offer,” Davis said.

More than 900 jobs and $210 million in wages would be created constructing the port, a past study found. A 2010 study by the University of Georgia and Wilbur Smith & Associates said complete build-out is worth a million jobs and $9 million in tax revenue for Georgia and South Carolina.

This story was originally published February 23, 2018 at 4:21 PM with the headline "A major Jasper County project might come a decade later than expected."