The proposed US$3.3bn Jasper Ocean Terminal (JOT) project is currently being led by Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) and South Carolina Ports Authority (SCPA), but Jasper County officials told PS they think progress has been too slow.
The Council says it feels as though the two state port authorities, which share the river but operate competing ports in Savannah and Charleston, have “no intention of moving forward with the project”.
This is despite the Joint Project Office’s (JPO) recent navigation and capacity studies, carried out on the Savannah River to determine what future depth would be required.
Jim Newsome, president and CEO, SCPA, told Port Strategy: “The 1,500 acre site, when developed, would be the largest contiguous port facility in the United States, and it is the next logical site for additional container capacity once the Port of Charleston’s terminals and Georgia’s Garden City Terminal reach their handling capacity in the coming decades.”
With the hope of getting things moving, members of the Jasper County Council voted to deliver an ultimatum earlier this month. It wants the JPO to begin the construction permit process for the port at its next meeting on 17 September 2013 or it will demand control of the project and the land purchased to develop the port in partnership with private sector partners.
Jasper County Council, South Carolina, has been trying to build a shipping terminal on the river across from Savannah for more than two decades to boost the small rural county.
In the early 2000s it developed a relationship with a private terminal developer and began moving forward with the project, but the council says the project was “hijacked” by GPA and SCPA back in 2007 due to legal land site complications.