After weeks of delays caused by an unseasonably rainy summer, regular cargo shipments will begin moving through the inland port Monday.
The $2 billion project had lost 80 days to rain when Jack Ellenberg, senior vice president of economic development and projects with the SC Ports Authority (SCPA), gave an update at the Greenville Chamber’s recent transportation and infrastructure committee meeting.
The port had originally been expected to open at the beginning of September when it was first announced early this year.
“We’re calling it a soft opening. It’s not something where everything comes online in one day,” said Erin Pabst, SCPA director of communications. Staff members have been working full-time this week, testing IT schedules and performing other preliminary operational activities. The process of getting up to full operation will be ongoing, and construction is expected to continue through the end of the year, she said.
BMW is the port’s initial customer. SCPA is marketing it for use by others in the Upstate and port users beyond South Carolina, Pabst said. The inland port is touted as a 225-mile inland extension of operations at the Port of Charleston. Cargo will move by train from Charleston to Greer, giving port users more direct access to markets throughout the South, East and Midwest. As the Port of Charleston undergoes renovations to become just the second in the nation to handle supersized cargo ships in the coming years, the inland port’s importance is expected to increase.
Cargo will arrive at the port via overnight rail deliveries, and then will move to trucks that will carry the cargo throughout the region. The Greer port will handle 40,000 40-foot containers each day when it is at full capacity. Officials say the port could be expanded to handle 100,000 containers.
The inland port is expected to remove 25,000 truck trips from I-26. SCPA and local transportation officials will monitor traffic flows near the plant to assess impacts on local roads and neighborhoods, though SCPA has emphasized that vehicles will be traveling on underutilized roadways. Ellenberg said the effects on traffic along I-85 would be minimal at first and would also continue to be monitored.
