COLOMBIA, SC (AP) – A group of South Carolina senators sent a $ 550 million loan proposal to expand the Charleston Port railway lines to the Senate floor on Tuesday.
The expansion project approved by the Senate Finance Committee would allow the port to move cargo containers on railway lines more easily and could take up to 500,000 trucks off state roads, said South Carolina Ports President and CEO Jim Newsome.
It would also allow workers to move containers around the port more easily, he said.
Proponents of the bond issue said interest rates were at historic low levels and that Charleston Harbor is the only one along the Atlantic Ocean to have no easy rail access.
There will likely be a debate in the Senate floor on whether this is the right thing to borrow money for. South Carolina last issued bonds for that amount in 1999, when it borrowed $ 750 million to renovate school buildings.
The crews have another year left in the $ 600 million deepening project at the port of Charleston, which was split between the state and federal government.
“It takes care of us for a while,” said Newsome of the railroad expansion project.