Hold the Port to its Promises” coalition members support the Army Corps of Engineers request for traffic study.

At the state ports authoritys monthly board meeting Tuesday, the SPA was directed to complete a traffic study the Army Corps of Engineers say should have been included in the port expansion proposal previously submitted to the corps. The failure to address traffic impacts is what led members of the Olde North Charleston Neighborhood Council to form the Hold the Port to its Promises Committee”, which has since grown to a coalition representing over 500 residents whose neighborhoods would be impacted by truck and rail traffic generated by the proposed terminal expansion.

(PRWEB) September 25, 2004 -- At the state ports authoritys monthly board meeting Tuesday, the SPA was directed to complete a traffic study the Army Corps of Engineers say should have been included in the port expansion proposal previously submitted to the corps.

In October 2002, the City of North Charleston and the South Carolina State Ports Authority signed a Memorandum of Understanding agreement in which the State and the Ports Authority promised to build new infrastructure to handle port-related trucks and trains that would result from the state mandated container terminal expansion at the old navy base.

The failure to address traffic impacts is what led members of the Olde North Charleston Neighborhood Council to form the Hold the Port to its Promises” Committee, which has since grown to a coalition representing over 500 residents whose neighborhoods would be impacted by truck and rail traffic generated by the proposed terminal expansion.

Members of the Hold the Port to its Promises” coalition fully support the corps request that the SPA now complete a traffic study to assess the impact port generated truck and rail traffic would have on area roads and neighborhoods. The SPA accuses the corps of deliberately blocking the proposed expansion of the port at the old navy base while the corps contends they are simply doing what federal law directs them to do.

Residents of neighborhoods surrounding the old navy base have been calling for the SPA to address traffic and infrastructure needs as promised in the MOU for months but have received little in return. The recent action by the corps serves to validate the neighborhoods position that the original proposal was flawed and that they were correct to press the SPA to address their concerns.

Hold the Port to its Promises” committee chair David Goss stated, The corps isnt holding up the process, the state and the SPA are. Had they simply worked more closely together from the start and done the traffic study the corps has requested instead of passing the buck back and forth, they could have saved a lot of the time and money they contend has been wasted by the permitting process”.

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