Spinal Decompression Therapy in Wando, SC

South Carolina Ports is marking the completion of its years-long infrastructure project as its fifteenth and final ship-to-shore crane is now operational at the Port of Charleston’s Wando Welch Terminal.

The fifteen new ship-to-shore cranes have 155 feet of lift height and the ability to reach out over 22 containers to work the biggest ships calling the U.S. East Coast. The cranes will allow for three 14,000-TEU vessels to be worked simultaneously—five cranes for each of the three berths. The first two neo-Panamax ship-to-shore cranes arrived at the Wando Welch Terminal in 2018.

The cranes are a key part of SC Ports’ $500 million investment to modernize Wando Welch Terminal. The multi-year project added capacity and boosted operations with new container-handling equipment, a modernized container yard and refrigerated cargo yard, improved traffic patterns and IT systems, a strengthened wharf, and an on-terminal transload facility for large retailers.

“It is truly remarkable to see the final crane of our new fleet moved into place on the Wando Welch Terminal wharf,” said SC Ports President and CEO Barbara Melvin, who took the helm in July. “This is the culmination of years of effort, planning and coordination by our team and project partners. Our modern equipment provides smarter operations and more fluidity for the supply chain.”

SC Ports handled 216,097 TEUs and 119,872 pier containers at Wando Welch Terminal, North Charleston Terminal and Leatherman Terminal in July. This marked an improvement from the 196,225 TEUs it handled the previous month as delays at the Port of Savannah led some operators to omit Charleston, opting to instead to unload Charleston-bound containers in Savannah to make up time, according to industry expert John McCown.

SC Ports last month reported a record fiscal year in 2022 (its fiscal year runs July to June), with 2.85 million TEUs handled. For pier containers, which account for boxes of any size, SC Ports moved 1.58 million containers during the year. Overall, SC Ports saw a 12% uptick in cargo, with more than 164,000 additional containers moving through the Port of Charleston than the year prior thanks to sustained consumer demand. Imports were up 22% year-over-year.

To maintain cargo fluidity at terminals, SC Ports has extended Sunday gate hours for motor carriers through at least peak season, given berth priority to vessels taking out more cargo, improved rail dray dwell times to around 36 hours, hired more than 150 people in operations to handle the influx of cargo, and launched a port-owned and port-operated chassis pool.

These efforts have helped to keep cargo moving. There have been no vessels waiting since early May, though supply chain challenges continue along the East Coast, according to SC Ports.

“We are continuing to be adaptive and responsive to ensure fluidity for our customers and cargo owners,” Melvin said.

Learn where South Carolina’s three top inshore species live and catch them all

“You’re gonna have to horse him out of there. Don’t give him any slack,” said Capt. Addison Rupert of Charleston’s Lowcountry Outdoor Adventures, coaching a client who was hooked up with a bull redfish around some wooden structure in the Wando River. A few minutes later, Rupert hoisted the 42-inch redfish aboard, then asked his client if she was ready to go for the speckled trout and flounder. They were after an “inshore slam.”

Rupert said the Wando is one of many places in the Lowcountry where a fisherman has a chance to catch a slam this month: redfish, speckled trout and flounder.

“Redfish love to hang out along grass lines and in deep holes near wooden structures. Speckled trout like moving water, especially areas with cross currents. Flounder prefer smooth sandy or muddy bottom with structure nearby,” he said. “The Wando has all of these, and it has them all close together.”

A moving tide is preferable for all three species, said Rupert, but he said flounder bite on a slack tide more readily than redfish or trout, so he concentrates on those two species when the tide is moving, then targets flounder at ebb tide.

This month, redfish are all over the Lowcountry, and they are feeding aggressively. Rupert targets them with live or cut bait.

“I know I’ll find some redfish near wooden structures, especially ones that are near deep holes, and the Wando is full of such structures,” said Rupert, who fishes with live mud minnows on jigheads, and with cut blue crabs. With a quarter of a crab threaded onto a 3/0 circle hook at the end of a Carolina rig, Rupert anchors down or ties up within casting distance of docks or old bridge pilings. He fan-casts a spread of several rods — some with blue crab and some with mud minnows — then waits for a bite.

If nothing bites in 15 or 20 minutes, Rupert moves, but sometimes it’s a very subtle move.

“Sometimes I’ll just move a few feet so I can reach another side of whatever structure I’m fishing. Other times, I’ll run downriver to another piece of structure,” he said.

When it’s time for trout, Rupert focuses on moving water. Points on the main river often feature different currents that collide, and Rupert targets them with popping corks and mud minnows. He casts into one current, lets the current carry the cork into the other, then reels the rig back in, making it pop all the way back, often drawing strikes from trout.

When using popping corks, Rupert likes to have an 18-inch leader under the cork; he said many anglers are too shy when it comes to popping the rigs.

“I want it moving the whole time. I let it settle, then pop it across the water. The trout come to check out the noise, see the bait, then hopefully bite it,” he said.

Flounder, Rupert said, are the most challenging of the three inshore slam species.

“They are more particular about where they hang out, and they are finicky biters compared to redfish and trout, especially this month when those two species are pretty aggressive,” he said.

But the Wando has plenty of spots where flounder like to gather, said Rupert, who looks for shallow water with a smooth bottom. A black, muddy bottom is good, but a white sandy one is just as good. He uses a Carolina rig with a 12- to 18-inch leader and a mud minnow for bait. He sticks with 12- to 15-pound test line and suggests casting the minnow out, then slowly working it back toward the boat. He cautions anglers not to set the hook too quickly.

“If they run away with it, then you need to set the hook right away, but if you just feel a slight tick, just be patient and let the fish take it in. Flounder don’t bite like other fish; they take longer to work the bait into their mouths,” Rupert said.

In the Wando, Rupert said it’s easy to find flounder spots. Some are between the docks of riverfront homes. Look for areas that have very gentle slopes from shore to deeper water. At low tide, some of this water is inches deep, even 30 or 40 feet from the shore. It’s flat and sandy, a welcome habitat for flounder. He finds other flounder spots with flat, muddy bottoms where undeveloped land meets the river, mostly along the left bank of the river heading upstream from Remley’s Point.

Rupert said other inshore slam hot spots this month include creeks around the Isle of Palms Marina and the grass-lined banks in the harbor out of Shem Creek’s public boat ramp.

Another Charleston-area guide, Capt. Amy Little of Fine Lines Charters, likes pursuing the inshore slam, often out of the Breach Inlet boat ramp on Isle of Palms. Many of her favorite redfish and trout holes are within sight of the ramp and include some of the old wooden pilings near private docks. She likes to tie up or anchor within casting distance of these structures, then uses corks to suspend her bait above the bottom. She also likes to target grass lines, especially ones with shell banks nearby.

“When I see a grass line near a shell bank, then notice a jut in the grass line that creates a hole or opening in the grass, I will give that area special attention. I expect to catch redfish tight to the grass there, and trout are usually hanging out just off the grass, between the grass and shell bank,” Little said.

When fishing these shell banks, Little almost exclusively uses corks, suspending her bait with 12- to 15-inch leaders.

“You want to keep your hooks off those shell banks to keep from getting hooked on the shells. The trout sometimes bite very lightly too, so the cork helps detect bites,” said Little, who doesn’t impart a lot of action into the popping corks when her bait — usually live mud minnows or live shrimp — is fresh. “Once the bait gets a little sluggish, I’ll start popping it some, but I usually let the bait do its own thing.”

Aside from areas around Breach Inlet, Little said the waters around the Pitt Street bridge are productive for the inshore slam.

“The bull redfish hang out along the pilings of the bridge, and the grass lines all around the bridge are good spots for redfish and trout,” she said. “Water flows under the bridge to the main waterway, and the bottom there is a combination of shell banks and smooth sand. Anchoring in one spot can be productive for all three inshore slam species.”

Castle Pinckney is another productive spot for Little. Letting her cork float along with the tide on the outskirts of the island is a good tactic for trout, but she also catches flounder on the bottom between the island and a nearby cluster of pilings. She said flatfish love hugging the bottom close to the rocks that line the island, looking for an easy meal to ambush.

“They like a flat bottom, but they like it even better if it’s near some sort of change in structure like rock piles or even shell banks,” she said.

Aside from live mud minnows, Little likes using artificial lures for redfish and flounder, especially soft plastics like Vudu Shrimp.

“These baits are really good. They work well and they stand up to abuse. You can catch dozens of redfish and trout on one of these without them tearing up,” said Little.

Like Rupert, Little prefers a moving tide for this type of fishing,and said the incoming is almost always best.

“At low tide, these fish are ready to move into the areas they haven’t had access to in several hours. They know food is waiting for them, and once the tide starts rising, these fish will come in and hit the shell banks, grass lines, and dock pilings to look for food that is only available on the incoming or high tide,” she said.

DESTINATION INFORMATION

HOW TO GET THERE/WHEN TO GO — The Charleston area is blessed with dozens of public boat ramps that allow great access to productive waters like the Wando River. The Remley Point ramp is on the Cooper River at the foot of the US 17 bridge in Mount Pleasant; it is close to the mouth of the Wando River. The Paradise Island landing is on CR 1453 off US 17 on the Wando. The Breech Inlet ramp is a pay ramp at Isle of Palms Marina. June is a great month to target an inshore slam because flounder and trout have arrived, and along with redfish, they are very active before water temperatures warm to true summer levels.

TACKLE/TECHNIQUES — Medium-action spinning or baitcasting tackle will get the job done on trout, reds and flounder. Carolina rigs are most-often used when targeting flounder using live bait. For trout, a live bait suspended under a popping cork can do the trick. Reds will also hit live bait on a jighead or under a cork, or crab chunks on a Carolina rig.

GUIDES/FISHING INFO — Capt. Addison Rupert, Lowcountry Outdoor Adventures, 843-557-3476, www.lowcountryoutdooradventures.com; Capt. Amy Little, Fine Lines Charters, 843-345-1310, www.finelinescharters.com; Haddrell’s Point Tackle, Mount Pleasant, 843-881-3644; Charleston Angler, Mount Pleasant, 843-884-2095; Isle of Palms Marina, Isle of Palms, 843-886-0209; Atlantic Game & Tackle, Mount Pleasant, 843-881-6900; Henry’s Sporting Goods, Mount Pleasant, 843-881-0465. See also Guides & Charters in Classifieds.

ACCOMMODATIONS — Hampton Inn & Suites, Mount Pleasant, 843-856-3900; Holiday Inn, Mount Pleasant, 843-884-6000; Seaside Inn, Isle of Palms, 888-999-6516; Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina, Mount Pleasant, 888-856-0028; Shem Creek Inn, Mount Pleasant, 843-881-1000.

MAPS — Capt. Segull’s Nautical Charts, 888-473-4855, www.captainsegullcharts.com; Sealake Fishing; Guides, 800-411-0185, www.thegoodspots.com; Maps Unique, 910-458-9923, www.mapsunique.com.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — The S.C. Dept. of Transportation says temporary repairs on a broken support cable will require the James B. Edwards Bridge on I-526 westbound over the Wando River to be closed four weeks for repairs.

The DOT says it is targeting June 11 for a reopening date for the bridge, which connects Mount Pleasant to Daniel Island. The bridge and the portion of I-526 west from exits 28 to 24 were closed Monday, May 14, after DOT engineers say they found the broken cable.

Repairs the DOT will be making to get the bridge reopened by June 11 will be temporary, according to DOT officials, who did not go into detail about the outlook for long-term repairs and the need for additional future closures.

DOT Secretary Christy Hall said during Wednesday's press conference that the cable rupture constituted a "life safety" issue, leading DOT to shut down the bridge hours after a review was performed by safety inspectors.

According to a spokesman for FIGG Bridge Group, the engineering firm that designed the bridge, one cable, or tendon, rupturing wouldn't compromise the safety of the bridge. The bridge features 92 high-tension support tendons within its structure, officials say.

Each tendon consists of a bundle of seven smaller 19-strand steel cables encased in concrete grout, according to DOT chief engineer Leland Colvin. DOT also says the ruptured cable is one of eight main support cables that run underneath the length of the bridge span.

Meanwhile, there are 84 additional support tendons embedded in the concrete foundation segments of the bridge. ABC News 4 has reached out to a FIGG spokesperson for clarification on why DOT officials say a "main" cable rupturing presents a threat to life, while FIGG experts have said a single cable rupturing wouldn't compromise safety.

Meanwhile, two of the 84 support cables in the bridge structure also have been identified as problematic, with one needing to be replaced, according to Colvin. DOT says it still has not pinpointed an exact cause for the main tendon rupturing, or the damage to the other tendons.

DOT officials said prior to Wednesday's announcement they'd found evidence of water intrusion and corrosion in the inner workings of the westbound portion of the bridge. Inspectors haven't identified a cause for those problems, but say they're isolated to the westbound side of the bridge, not the eastbound.

Colvin did stress Wednesday that the DOT believes a "design" issue is contributing to the cable damage, not load stress from heavy traffic on the bridges.

DOT had been doing weekly inspections on the bridge since 2016, when a separate "main" cable on the westbound side of the bridge was found with damage. That cable was repaired by early 2017.

Previously, the bridge had only been subject to inspections every 2 years, as federally mandated. According to DOT, there was no evidence in any of the the most recent weekly or yearly inspections of an impending cable break.

Colvin says DOT has now started daily site visits at the James B. Edwards Bridge that include both inspections and testing of the cable system on both the eastbound and westbound sides of the bridge.

Original construction on the bridge began in the late 1980s, and it opened to traffic in 1991, meaning the ruptured cable had been in service roughly 30 years. Colvin says the life expectancy on the cables at the time they were installed was 50 years.

Hall says she has ordered a complete review of the bridge's maintenance records related to the Wando bridge in order to put together a timeline and history of potentially overlooked issues in the past. Hall says that information will be released to the public.

"We have nothing to hide on this. We’re all in this together," Hall said.

Detours are in place along Highway 17 south to I-26, and Highway 17 north to S.C. 41 and Clements Ferry Road. Charleston mayor John Tecklenburg has urged carpooling, and said the city has entered into licensing agreements to expand ferry services for people commuting from Daniel Island and Mount Pleasant.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Twenty-one mooring balls were recently installed and are visible from the two waterfront piers on Daniel Island’s Wando River coastline. The devices were permitted and funded by the Daniel Island Yacht Club

According to club representative Jeff Jarrard, a total of 144 mooring balls have been approved by the Army Corps of Engineers, SC Department of Health and Environmental Control and Ocean Resource Management.

Mooring balls are used to safely secure a vessel for a temporary stay.

The mooring balls off of Waterfront Park consist of a helical anchor that is driven into the seabed and attached to an elastic rope, known as a pennant.

These are not the mooring balls of old that were configured with a slab of concrete and a chain. The rope on modern mooring balls, like the ones installed off of Daniel Island, is flexible and stretches during tidal changes or storm surges.

Jarrard explained that the system is designed so as not to disrupt sea life or the ecosystem. He further noted that the balls do not impede the navigable waters because all of the moorings are located inside the channel.

The plan is to install a total of 73 mooring balls, Jarrard said, which is about half of the approved amount. Twenty-one out of a planned 28 have been installed north of the piers and another 45 are expected to be installed south of the piers, Jarrard said.

There are three types of moorings available: One that can sustain up to a 25-foot boat, one up to 35 feet and another up to 45 feet. Mooring balls for the smaller vessels will be closer to shore for depth reasons.

Although the mooring balls are engineered to have vessels attached during storm events, Jarrard said that the Daniel Island Yacht Club’s policy is that vessels cannot be moored during a storm.

Hazelett Marine is in charge of installation. Currently stationed in Panama, Hazelett is expected to return in two to three weeks to finish the remainder of the mooring field.

When the operation is complete, there will be two mooring fields and a main channel in and out of the facility between the two docks. The North Dock will be home to the Daniel Island Yacht Club and the Daniel Island Ferry. The South Dock is where the Carefree Boat Club resides, offering day docking and by the hour.

On the North Dock, there will be public restrooms and an administrative office for booking and launching charters and cocktail cruises. Construction has been delayed due to material supply issues but should be completed in the next few months.

There are currently no bridals or pendants on the mooring balls, rendering them unusable. Future usage will be permitted only for DI Yacht Club members or sponsored guests on a monthly or annual basis.

The Daniel Island Yacht Club has not opened up its membership yet. Its sailing program will be full steam ahead by the spring of 2022. Food and beverage services on the North Dock will be ready by early summer of 2022.

“Starting a yacht club is a different animal,” Jarrard said. “It takes a lot of preparation and discussion ... It’s a process ... We’re going to take our time and do it right.”

With this year’s opening of the first U.S. greenfield container terminal in more than a decade plus significant modernization of its venerable Wando Welch Terminal, the South Carolina Ports Authority’s Port of Charleston is exceptionally positioned to fluidly move burgeoning volumes on and off megacontainerships.

“As the only port in the country with new terminal capacity, SC Ports has the ability to handle the growing cargo volumes and rising retail imports coming through the Port of Charleston,” James I. “Jim” Newsome III, president and chief executive officer of the South Carolina authority, told AJOT.

In his dozen years at the SC Ports helm, Newsome, a former Hapag-Lloyd (America) Inc. president, has spearheaded delivery of what he termed “just-in-the-nick-of-time infrastructure,” including through an ambitious six-year, $2 billion initiative that augurs to boost the Port of Charleston’s total annual throughput capacity to more than 4.8 million 20-foot-equivalent units.

The Port of Charleston’s increased big-ship-handling capability is coming at a propitious time, amidst a pandemic-spurred increase in U.S. consumer spending and concomitant import boom and heightened distribution hub capacity demand.

“Amid ongoing supply chain challenges, SC Ports’ capacity, berth availability and efficient operations are more important than ever,” Newsome said.

Operations were launched in March at the first phase of Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal, built on a former U.S. Navy base site in North Charleston, where the port permitting process began back in 2003. The initial Leatherman phase is adding 700,000 TEUs of yearly capacity at the Port of Charleston. At full build-out, a three-berth Leatherman facility is to offer 2.4 million TEUs of annual throughput capability.

A similar 2.4 million TEUs of yearly capacity is to be provided by the modernized Wando Welch Terminal, a four-decades-old facility that, in this latest $500 million renovation, is seeing its contingent of ship-to-shore cranes increase to 15 units with 155 feet of lift height, augmented by 65 rubber-tired gantries and a stronger wharf. The last two of those cranes are slated to be operational by early 2022. The Wando Welch Terminal can simultaneously handle as many as four megacontainerships, each with a capacity of 14,000 or more TEUs.

Furthermore, the nearly $600 million Charleston Harbor Deepening Project, funded by state and federal dollars, is on track to achieve a 52-foot depth in 2022, to give Charleston the deepest harbor on the U.S. East Coast, capable of accommodating the biggest of boxships at any time under any tidal conditions.

“All of this puts us in a very unique situation to be able to grow without congestion,” Newsome said. “We have no congestion right now. The port works very reliably, and we are able to get ships in and out fast.”

SC Ports already has been handling record volumes. In the first eight months of calendar 2021, the Port of Charleston handled 1,814,602 TEUs, putting it on pace to far exceed the 2,309,995 TEUs moved in 2020 and also surpass the calendar-year record 2,436,184 TEUs handled in 2019.

With such a dramatic rise in activity, SC Ports also is enhancing its intermodal capabilities for getting cargo to and from inland destinations.

Supported in part by a $25 million U.S. Department of Transportation grant, expansion is under way at SC Ports’ Inland Port Greer, the first phase of which opened just off Interstate 85 in Upstate South Carolina in 2013, with BMW Manufacturing Co. as its launch customer. The Greer facility extends the Port of Charleston’s reach 212 miles inland via Norfolk Southern rail, with 94 million consumers reachable within a one-day truck trip from the inland terminal.

Meanwhile, SC Ports is developing the Navy Base Intermodal Facility, a cargo yard near Leatherman Terminal that is to be served by both CSX and Norfolk Southern. That facility, targeted for completion within three years, is part of a $500 million-plus project that also encompasses an inner harbor container-on-barge operation for moving boxes between Wando Welch Terminal and Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal.

At the same time, with the continuing boom in retail imports, SC Ports is actively working with retailers to find transload and warehouse capacity to expedite peak-season volumes. SC Ports operates a transload facility at Wando Welch Terminal, handling cargo for e-commerce business of megaretailers.

A 3-million-square-foot Walmart import distribution center is on schedule to open in January on port-owned land in Ridgeville, South Carolina, about 35 miles northwestward up Interstate 26 from the Leatherman terminal.

For more than a quarter of a century, Paul Scott Abbott has been writing and shooting images for the American Journal of Transportation, applying four decades of experience as an award-winning journalist. A graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, with a master’s magna cum laude from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Abbott has served as president of chapters of the Propeller Club of the United States, Florida Public Relations Association and Society of Professional Journalists. Abbott honed his skills on several daily newspapers, including The Cincinnati Enquirer, The Richmond (Va.) News Leader, Albuquerque Journal and (South Florida) Sun-Sentinel, and was editor and publisher of The County Line, a weekly newspaper he founded in suburban Richmond, Va. A native Chicagoan, he is a member of American Mensa and an ever-optimistic fan of the Chicago Cubs.