Charleston pausing berth project to ease vessel backlog

The South Carolina Ports Authority (SC Ports) will take a two-week pause on a construction project which has shut down one of three berths at the Wando Welch Terminal, using the break to eliminate the queue of about a dozen vessels anchored outside Charleston.

While the exact date of when the berth project will be paused hasn’t been determined, it will occur sometime shortly after the July 4 holiday and allow the port to leave all three berths open, according to Barbara Melvin, CEO of SC Ports.

The Port of Charleston closed one of three berths in the Wando Welch Terminal when construction began in March, but it would have likely gone unnoticed had there not been a software malfunction that shut the port down for two days in May.

Melvin said the infrastructure project impacted the number of vessels anchored, but the closure exacerbated the problem. While there were several anchored vessels in early May, the total ballooned to nearly 20 after the software malfunction.

As of Thursday morning, the vessel backlog was back down to 10, and the port authority plans to get that number into the single digits before the end of the month.

“We had built into our contract a 10-business day pause, and we felt like, knowing July 4th was coming up, that the pause was necessary to allow us to clear out this ship queue,” Barbara Melvin, CEO of SC Ports, told the Journal of Commerce. “I won’t hide from it, the technical issues really did add to this situation. The pause will give us that opportunity to catch up and reset without that technical issue exacerbating the problem anymore.”

Even after the pause is ended, vessels might have to wait between two to three days for a berth, she said.

Necessary work

The construction project to fortify the toe wall is necessary to allow the newest and largest container ships to safely dock in Charleston. The toe wall helps to withstand the forces of water currents and vessel movements, keeping the inner harbor dredged to 54 feet.

Maintaining the depth of an inner harbor requires recurring maintenance, no matter the port, to counter the effects of erosion and the accumulation of sediment, which otherwise would reduce the depth over time.

Since May, the port has taken several measures to reduce the supply chain impact of the anchored vessels. Ocean carriers are utilizing slots offered at 1:00 a.m. to load and unload vessels rather than the mid-morning, early afternoon or evening slots. SC Ports provides a virtual platform to inform ocean carriers the estimated berth time for their vessels, enabling them to save fuel, time and money.

Some ships have been diverted to the North Charleston terminal, but ultra-large container vessels cannot call there due to the current vertical clearance of the Don Holt Bridge.

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