Moffat & Nichol land contract to design Charleston terminal

Moffat & Nichol land contract to design Charleston terminal    The South Carolina State Ports Authority has awarded a $3.4 million site preparation and consolidation contract to Long Beach, Calif.-based engineering firm Moffatt & Nichol to begin the design of a marine container terminal at the former Charleston Naval Base in North Charleston.
   At full build-out, the $600 million terminal will occupy 286 acres and comprise three berths, terminal gates and associated buildings and container storage yards.
   “There are a number of challenges to creating a container terminal at the site, the biggest of which is the stabilization and improvement of very weak, compressible soils,” said Tim Reid, Moffat & Nichol operations manager in Raleigh. “Since the proposed facility extends out into the Cooper River, an additional challenge is the large amount of imported fill required to surcharge the site and backfill behind the wharf to develop the backlands. Because of these issues, we’ll break the work down into sub-projects to allow independent completion and to accelerate the project development.”