The contract’s signed and demolition has already started. A joint venture of Chicago’s Walsh Group and France’s Soletanche Bachy has been hired as the engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the first phase of the Delaware Container Terminal at Edgemoor, a $669 million build the Diamond State Port Corp. says will quadruple container capacity at the Port of Wilmington.
The price tells its own story. Phase one carried a $415 million estimate not long ago. It’s now $669 million, a 61% jump the state and terminal operator Enstructure pin on inflation, tariffs on imported equipment, and a fuller engineering picture for what’s planned as a fully electrified facility.
What the $669M buys at Edgemoor
The money goes into a deepwater berth and the gear to run it. The equipment package converts four existing ship-to-shore cranes and two rubber-tired gantry cranes from diesel to electric, then adds nine new electric RTGs, 110 electric terminal tractors, 15 electric top handlers and 54 DC fast chargers. Early work started June 1 and runs through 2028, ahead of crane delivery and commissioning. The terminal is built to take the larger container ships that can’t fit the existing Wilmington berths today.
Who covers the overrun
Closing a $254 million gap took three checkbooks. Delaware agreed to put in another $110 million, Enstructure is adding $75 million, and roughly $69 million comes from federal funding. That math has drawn scrutiny in Dover, where officials have been candid that costs ran well past the original plan. For a mid-Atlantic port that has leaned on auto and fruit cargo for decades, the bet is that electrified container capacity pulls volume that would otherwise route through New York or Norfolk.
Demolition crews are clearing the Edgemoor site now. The cranes are the long-lead item, and they won’t arrive until the civil work is largely done. Watch 2028 for whether the schedule holds against the same cost pressures that already reshaped the budget. For more East Coast infrastructure spending, see our coverage of the Navy’s $8B NAVFAC Washington award. Source reporting from Engineering News-Record and the State of Delaware.
Related project on Exchange: Delaware Container Terminal at Edgemoor.