Demolition to begin at former WestRock mill site for SC port expansion

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) — Demolition will soon start at the former WestRock paper mill site in North Charleston as the South Carolina Port Authority moves forward with plans to expand its capacity.

Port leaders said demolition is expected to begin by mid to late July.

“Most of the buildings are clean as far as hazardous materials in them, but there is a lot of asbestos and other materials out there that we have to remediate for so that will be the first step they’ll come in and they’ll do a lot of work behind the scenes,” Butch Weber, vice president of engineering and facilities for the South Carolina Port Authority, said.

Weber said clearing the 280-acre industrial waterfront property, adjacent to North Charleston Terminal, will be a massive task.

“Then it will take some time to sort the debris and determine what they’re going to scrap, what they’re going to salvage,” Weber said.

Long-term expansion plans

The expansion will allow the terminal’s capacity to handle 5 million containers and create 5,000 feet of linear berth space for container ships and around 400 acres of terminal space for cargo. Leaders said that the timeline is long-term, two to three decades out.

In the next few years, the site will be prepared and used for roll-on, roll-off cargo, including vehicles such as BMW, Volvo and Mercedes-Benz.

“Also, on the North Charleston terminal itself, the existing footprint, we are going to make some modifications to that terminal, improving some of the container stacking areas and also improving some of the area for finish vehicle parking,” Weber said.

Nearly 14,600 vehicles crossed the docks in May, up 12% compared to last May.

At a board meeting, President and CEO Micah Mallace addressed recent cuts made for efficiency due to a market downturn. Despite the challenges, Mallace expressed an optimistic outlook for future expansion.

“We also recognize that the stakeholders in the community are affected in the same way and some of the decisions we make impact them, and so we make those decisions with a lot of care and concern with an eye towards how we offset the downturn in the market, and so really the focus going forward is growth,” Mallace said.

Weber said after the demolition process is complete, the port expects to prepare the terminal for roll-on/roll-off operations to begin in 2027 and be complete in 2028.