SC Ports awards contract for terminal

   The South Carolina Ports Authority said it approved on Friday a $42.7-million contract for work on a container terminal at the former Navy base in Charleston.
   The contract was awarded to the Quincy, Mass.-based firm Jay Cashman, Inc.
   Cashman will transport about 1.75 million cubic yards of dredged material from Daniel Island to the terminal, placing the fill behind a containment wall and on portions of the upland area. The crews also will consolidate the upland area of the site by installing 5.7 million linear feet of vertical wick drains and surcharging the area to stabilize the site and prepare it for construction.
   The project is expected to run through January 2014, overlapping with the next major fill contract which is slated to begin late next year. At build-out, the new 280-acre container terminal will increase the Port of Charleston’s container capacity by 50 percent.