Members of the DSPC, state and federal legislature and Enstructure pose for a photo at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Delaware Container Terminal. Photo Credit: Ryan Colasanti
Members of the state legislature, Enstructure and the Diamond State Port Corporation gathered to celebrate the groundbreaking of the Delaware Container Terminal on September 14.
WILMINGTON, DE — Community leaders and members of Enstructure and the Diamond State Port Corporation (DSPC) gathered together at the site of the Delaware Container Terminal, Monday morning, to officially break ground on the port project.
The Delaware Container Terminal is intended to be a new container port located along the Delaware River at the former Edgemoor industrial site that was home to a DuPont chemical plant, up until its closure in 2015. The new terminal is a public-private partnership venture between Enstructure and the DSPC, and is expected to increase Delaware’s container handling capacity by a significant amount, according to an official press release from Enstructure following the event.
The groundbreaking ceremony took place on the project site and hosted a plethora of speakers integral in the project’s development. The first speaker and host of the day’s program was Delaware Secretary of State and DSPC Board Chair, Charuni Patibanda-Sanchez. Patibanda-Sanchez was followed by Delaware Governor Matt Meyer, United States Senator Chris Coons, a video message from United States Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester and in-person remarks from United States Representative Sarah McBride.
A project rendering of what the completed Delaware Container Terminal project may resemble. Photo Credit: Enstructure
State Senators Darius Brown and Jack Walsh spoke after Rep. McBride and State Representative Franklin Cooke followed the senators, telling those assembled together that the port project was special to him because of his familial ties to working at port locations, including the Port of Wilmington. State Rep. Cooke said that for four generations a member of his family had worked at the port, including himself.
The President of the International Longshoreman’s Association 1694, William Ashe Jr., spoke next followed by the Executive Director of the Bellevue Community Center, Daniel Elkins and Co-CEOs of Enstructure, Matthew Satnick and Philippe De Montigny.
The overarching theme from all the speakers was an optimism of how the project will positively impact Delaware’s economic footprint both in terms of local job creation and global commerce.
“This is really big for our community,” Gov. Meyer said. “This is something that’s going to create thousands of jobs. It takes a whole lot of investment from the private sector, from the public sector. I would anticipate that not everyone’s going to be for it, but we’re going to push forward. We’re listening to the community. My appointments to the port board reflect that we are not just sitting back and listening to what the neighbors have to say, we’re out there actively soliciting. We want to hear them. They’re part of this project too.”
The project is expected to create thousands of jobs in sectors such as maritime, construction, supply chain and logistics, according to Enstructure. The port will be able to welcome in larger ships due to the expected development that will increase water depth to 45 feet and about half a mile in waterfront docking space at the project’s full-scale.
The port is being designed as a “green port facility” in an effort to reduce the infrastructure’s impact on the surrounding environment. The port will use electric powered equipment such as electric gantry cranes to handle cargo and it will also incorporate “low-emission operating practices”, according to Enstructure. The project will use funding from the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Ports Program to support their efforts in “the collection and analysis of operational data to measure results and refine implementation over time.”
The project isn’t supported by everyone in the local community.
A group of protestors gathered in front of the project site holding signs that asked for a stop to the project. Patibanda-Sanchez acknowledged the group while speaking to the audience assembled at the groundbreaking ceremony, saying that the DSPC will continue working with the local community to try and mitigate the impact on the community as the site cleanup and development proceeds.
“This was a heavily polluted site for a long time,” Sen. Coons said. “It was a titanium dioxide plant under DuPont’s ownership, and dioxin is very dangerous. It’s a contaminating chemical. So, I think there are legitimate community concerns that need to be addressed as the cleanup proceeds, but I also think having a new state-of-the-art container terminal on this river, a dream that’s been invested in and built towards for now 15 years is well worth doing for the high quality union jobs it will produce for generations in Delaware.”
The port is expected to be open in early 2029, according to Enstructure.
Ryan Colasanti joins Delaware Live following four years at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism, earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism. There he covered multiple sports for the school’s radio station as both a reporter and editor. Ryan is excited to return back to the state and cover all things Delaware sports.
