Winter is coming. But the war over Delaware River shipping is only just heating up.
A proposed new $635 million Edgemoor container terminal near Wilmington has hit a major setback this week, after a federal judge on Monday vacated multiple important federal permits that would allow the new terminal to be built.
When completed, the Edgemoor terminal would be the “largest shipping terminal in Delaware since the current Port of Wilmington opened in 1923,” according to state officials – a “green port” that state officials say will quadruple the Wilmington port’s capacity for container cargo, and allow service to the new class of bigger container ships being sent through the world’s ports.
But this week’s ruling in U.S. District Court will likely throw a large wrench into Delaware’s construction plans, setting back a long-planned project that state officials have called the most important new infrastructure project in Delaware since Route 1.