Palmetto Railways has started construction on a rail line to serve Camp Hall Commerce Park and Volvo Cars’ plant in Berkeley County, WCSC-TV reported Thursday.
The $185 million line will connect to an existing CSX line near Santee Cooper’s Cross Generating Station in Cross, said Patrick McCrory, the railroad’s president and CEO.
“This line is really intended to serve the U.S. domestic market, so from here to New York, New Jersey, from here to Los Angeles, across the country and all in between,” McCrory told the station.
The rail link was part of the incentive package South Carolina offered Volvo in 2015 to land its first U.S. plant, but a lack of money held it up for years, The Post and Courier reported. On May 16, the legislature’s Joint Bond Review Committee authorized the S.C. Commerce Department to draw $48.5 million from a special economic development fund for the project, the last major piece of public financing. The first phase of construction began in April, according to documents provided to the committee, the newspaper reported.
The cost is about a third higher than a 2021 estimate, the newspaper reported. Commerce, whose Palmetto Railways division will own and operate the line, is contributing $144 million. Volvo is putting in $6 million and CSX $10 million, and a federal transportation grant awarded two years ago is expected to cover the rest. The newspaper put the line’s length at 22.7 miles.
Most of the plant’s cars for the U.S. market now go by truck to a site near Columbia to be loaded onto rail cars. “This has put an additional strain on I-26, which is already one of the more congested highways in our state,” Commerce Secretary Harry Lightsey wrote to lawmakers, according to the newspaper. Redwood Materials’ planned $3.5 billion battery recycling plant at Camp Hall will also need rail service, Commerce said.
“We anticipate roughly one train a day, five days a week,” McCrory said. New crossings are planned at Volvo Car Drive, Highway 176 and Mudville Road, among others, WCSC reported. McCrory said construction will take about two and a half years.
