The bi-state port on the Savannah River now has a momentum that will be hard to derail, Gov. Mark Sanford said in a letter to Jasper County residents last week.
Until recently, the idea of a port on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River was tossed around for decades in the Lowcountry with little progress made. Then in January an intergovernmental agreement was signed by Georgia and South Carolina outlining the process needed to move forward on the bi-state port, called the Jasper Ocean Terminal.
Sanford's letter brought residents up to speed on the port's progress during the past few months.
"(The port) has gotten to a point of critical mass in a political sense, so that even when (Georgia Gov. Sonny) Perdue and I are gone from office, the project is far enough down the path of bi-state cooperation that it would be very difficult for a future administration on either side of the river to reverse course," Sanford wrote. Sanford has 21/2 years left in office.
The most recent of those developments driving the port will be the selection of a firm to draft preliminary plans and oversee the initial studies needed for the port. The selection will be made in two to three weeks, joint project office vice chairman Bill Bethea Jr. said.
The joint project office is the entity created by an intergovernmental agreement to direct the port development on behalf of both states.
The office had received one engineering proposal from DMJM Harris and another from Moffat & Nichol when bidding closed Friday. DMJM Harris is a transportation flagship of New York- and Los Angeles-based AECOM Technology. Moffat & Nichol is an international design engineering firm specializing in marine public services.
"We're having continued discussions with (the firms) about the scope of the proposals," Bethea said. "We should have this finalized in October and get them off and working."
Sanford's letter also mentioned the settlement of lawsuits regarding the 1,518 acres where the port will be located. Those settlements made it possible for the port to move forward.
After the lawsuits' resolutions, both states jointly purchased the disputed land from the Georgia Department of Transportation for $7.59 million in July. When complete, the port will be jointly owned by Georgia and South Carolina.
While Sanford praised industry circles that brought the port to the forefront, he also asked that people be proactive to "balance growth with quality of life."
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