(The following story by Alexis Garrobo appeared on the Beauford Gazette website on August 17.)
BEAUFORD, S.C. — Part of a $338,000 statewide study will look at whether there is adequate rail service for the pending Jasper Ocean Terminal on the Savannah River.
The South Carolina Public Railways Commission, a division of the Department of Commerce, awarded the contract to Columbia-based Wilbur Smith Associates,a transportation and infrastructure consulting firm,to research and develop a statewide rail plan by January.
Part of the plan will examine what is expected to happen at the Jasper port and determine if the state has the rail infrastructure to support it, said Kara Borie, spokeswoman for the Department of Commerce. The shipping terminal owned by Georgia and South Carolina is expected to open between 2017 and 2020 on 1,518 acres on the Jasper County banks of the Savannah River.
Wilbur Smith’s project manager, David Castle, said that the team just began this week. Railwaysnear the proposed port includes a CSX Corp.line that runs parallel to U.S. 17 through western Jasper County and another line that follows Interstate 95 to Orangeburg.
“(We’ll) identify port to rail opportunities to facilitate economic expansion,” Castle said. “Obviously, we’ll be moving forward with it, but it’s too early to have results.”
As a whole, the state rail plan will look at the infrastructure needed to meet the state’s economic development needs, Borie said. The rail plan will include an inventory of large industrial sites and make recommendations related to future development and the state’s existing infrastructure.
The port is expected to be one of the state’s main economic engines although an economic study has not been completed. The Joint Project Office, the entity directing the development of the port, said that the economic impacts will be in the millions of dollars each year.
“Part of the goal (of the rail plan) is to be proactive… to make sure the groundwork is in place so we can recruit future investment,” Borie said.