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According to Merriam-Webster, an industrial park is “an area of a town or city that is designed especially for factories or offices.” Many industrial parks are just that and nothing more. But a select number of industrial parks nationwide are now pushing the boundaries of what such a development has been or could be. Two top examples are Camp Hall near Charleston, S.C. and MidAmerica Industrial Park near Tulsa, Okla.

Camp Hall, located in Ridgeville, S.C., northwest of Charleston, has carved out its distinctive standing through its commitment to the environment and the protection of wildlife. Almost 40 percent (2,600) of the industrial park’s 6,800 acres has been set aside as preserved acreage.

Efforts to maintain a natural coastal South Carolina habitat have included restoring wildlife habitats for native species, as well as establishing a ‘pollinator pathway” traversed by birds, bees and butterflies. A wetlands restoration project is underway, with the goal of restoring approximately 480 acres of wetlands.

Among the corporate tenants of the master-planned park is Volvo, which chose Camp Hall as the site of its first-ever U.S. manufacturing plant.

Volvo employees and others who work in the park benefit from a people-focused workforce design, which among other perks gives them access to a more than 15-mile trail system through the park. Another amenity is Avian Commons, a Wi-Fi connected collection of small businesses that includes a convenience store, dry cleaner, bank, fitness center and fuel center. It will eventually incorporate an event lawn and playfield for gatherings and celebrations.

“Camp Hall is unique in that it puts just as much emphasis on the area’s natural beauty and nature as it does on infrastructure and amenities,” said Charleston Regional Development Alliance Director of Global Business Megan Anderson. “Prospective companies have been blown away at the quality of place they could potentially offer their future employees.”

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ByAmy DaniseEditor

ByJason MetzEditor

Building workforce

In Pryor, Okla., 45 miles east of Tulsa, MidAmerica Industrial Park (MAIP) stands out for its evolution into what its chief executive officer calls “a multifaceted employment center.” Operating for almost six decades, MAIP encompasses 9,000 acres, is the largest industrial park in the Sooner State and one of the biggest in the U.S.

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It’s not only home to 80 companies that include Google, Chevron, Siemens and other Fortune 500 firms, but also offers health care services and is now building housing within the park. A robust workforce development component trains future workers. MAIP has forged strategic alliances with on-site educational partners delivering relevant programs and services the park’s employers require.

As well, MAIP has unveiled a new MidAmerica Career Center, a kind of one-stop shop for career guidance. It also links employers to crucial job resources accessed from state, tribal and corporate agencies.

Staying invested

“In today’s economic development market, the evolution of an industrial park into a multi-faceted employment center is a cornerstone to inclusive growth in jobs and people,” said David Stewart, MAIP’s CEO. “We continue to evolve, not only to remain relevant, but also to surpass the competition and meet the ever-changing demands of industry . . . Without the generations of hard work behind us, we would not have the experience necessary to compete as a top-tier site location for mega employers.”

MidAmerica Industrial Park has reaped enormous success in luring international companies like DuPont, Canoo and others.

Noted Arthur Jackson, senior vice president of economic development at the Tulsa Regional Chamber: “Not only does its size and central location make it an ideal place for businesses, but MidAmerica continues to invest in infrastructure and workforce development, positioning the park for future growth.”

RIDGEVILLE, S.C. (WCBD) – A giant prehistoric whale flipper was discovered buried under several feet of mud in Dorchester County this week.

The owner of Palmetto Fossil Excursions, Schuyler Andrulat, said it was a first for her… the first time she had found a whale flipper. The bones were found at the bottom of a pond under refurbishment in the Ridgeville area.

“We made an astounding discovery in that this is the flipper of a very large baleen whale, probably somewhere around 2.5 million years, since we are in the Waccamaw unit,” she said.

“I opened up a small area, and the first thing I came down on was at the end of the humerus and the end of the ulna bones,” explained Andrulat.

Andrulat has been searching for fossils most of her life.

“When I was two years old, I found my first shark teeth on Edisto Beach walking with my mother. And as I got older, she took me hunting at different locations along the coastal plain of South Carolina.”

She is now co-owner of Palmetto Fossil Excursions; they take people on fossil hunts at the 100-acre pit down the road in Dorchester County.

When they learned this lake was going to be deepened, they asked the property owner if they could look for any fossils and even bring some of the dirt to their property to be sifted through.

The discovery was made on Monday. They plan to donate the bones to the museum at the College of Charleston if they want them. Several other whale bones were also found in the pond.

Millions of years ago, the area where these bones were discovered would have been a shallow part of the ocean floor.

“Take a look at the top of the pine trees, that’s the way I like to describe it to people – imagine standing on the ocean floor and the surface of the ocean is all the way up there, right around where the pine trees are,” said Andrulat.

If you are interested in going on a fossil hunt, you can click here to learn more about the excursions.

Google has confirmed it is behind a data center development project in Ridgeville, South Carolina

The search and cloud company has also received permission to develop three more data centers in Belgium.

Google confirmed to expand in South Carolina

Google has revealed itself to be behind the Project Dawson data center proposals in South Carolina.

“The Dorchester County Economic Development (DCED) office, which serves to support economic growth in the county, confirms a relationship with Google who recently closed on property in the county,” the DCED said this week.

“We are thrilled to welcome Google to Dorchester County and know they will be a long-term partner for our community, especially our schools,” said Dorchester County Council Chairman Todd Friddle. “Google has a history of strengthening local workforces and uplifting communities, and we look forward to Google making a positive difference here in Dorchester County.”

Campus specifications or project timelines haven't been shared.

According to the Post and Courier, the company aims to invest $510 million in the new campus – a 231-acre site along Research Center Drive and Highway 17A in Dorchester County’s Pine Hill Business Campus. The Dorchester County Council voted to change the site’s zoning earlier this month.

Google – previously reported as the company likely involved – has previously been conducting business around the project behind the Autumn Timber LLC and Mallard LLC company names. The search company had been referring to the site as Project Dawson.

“We have been proud to call South Carolina home for over fifteen years since we first put down roots in Berkeley County,” Google said in a statement. “Since then, we have partnered closely with local leadership, schools, and nonprofits to lift up the great work happening here. As we look to expand in the state, we have acquired property in Dorchester County for the development of a new data center campus. We look forward to growing our community here in South Carolina and will share details as this long-term project progresses.”

Google currently operates a South Carolina data center campus in Moncks Corner, around 20 miles east of Ridgeville. The company recently acquired another 140 acres in the area.

The Post and Courier also reports that Google, going by the aliases Project Evergreen and Gannett Enterprises LLC, has also is purchasing 206 acres for a proposed third data center near the county's Winding Woods Commerce Park along Pecan Tree Road and Highway 78, outside the town of St. George. The company was granted a $5.55 million purchase option for the land this month.

However, the company reportedly aims to focus on the Pine Hill campus for now, and will expand to the Winding Woods site as demand requires.

Google expands in Belgium

In Belgium, Google has been granted permission for a new data center campus.

The Walloon Region has issued an urban planning permit to the company for the construction of a new data center campus in the Hainaut municipality of Farciennes. The company is reportedly investing €600 million ($646m) in the project.

“The Walloon Region has just granted the permit for the installation of Google in Farcienne,” said Hugues Bayet, mayor of the municipality of Farciennes. “A new step in the realization of the digital giant's welcome in our region and above all the net creation of many jobs!”

Plans for the camps were first announced in July 2023. The campus will span some 53,000 sqm (570,500 sq ft). Previous reports suggested work would begin on the first phase – spanning around 7,500 sqm (80,730 sq ft) – would begin last year and launch in 2025.

More recent press suggests groundbreaking for the first 80MW phase is due to happen later this year.

Google acquired 53 hectares of land in the Ecopôle eco-business park, located across the municipalities of Farciennes, Aiseau-Presles, and Sambreville, in 2019. According to previous reports, energy firm Elia has confirmed that 200-300MW of capacity would be available on the site.

Belgium’s Saint Ghislain was the site of Google’s first data center in Europe. The company has built five data centers at its 90-hectare Saint-Ghislain site since 2009 as well as a solar plant. The company uses the shell company Crystal Computing for much of its dealings in Belgium.

2022 also saw Google acquire a 36-hectare site located in Ecaussinnes, in Hainaut province, in the Feluy industrial zone near La Louvière.

According to Raphael Stokis, a delegated official of the Walloon Region, the conditions attached to the permit will require on-site solar panels. Additionally, 90 percent of the energy consumed on the site must be carbon-free by 2025 and this must even be 95 percent by 2030.

Google will also have to opt for a more sustainable cooling system for the data centers in future – reportedly switching from systems that use water-consuming technology to air-cooling.

RIDGEVILLE, S.C. (WCBD)- Researchers have confirmed the discovery of fossils belonging to a 24-million-year-old whale in Dorchester County.

The newly discovered bones belonged to Eomysticetus, an extinct ancestor of baleen whales, according to experts. A team from Palmetto Fossil Excursions unearthed the fossils earlier this month along the Chandler Bridge formation near Ridgeville.

“It was extremely exciting knowing how rare Eomysticetes are and knowing that’s what we were pulling out of the ground,” Founder Skye Basak said.

Basak and Thomas Gilpin first located the posterior end of the Eomysticete’s skull around 6:00 p.m. on March 29.

The following day, Basak and Gilpin were joined by Joshua Basak, Dr. Elizabeth Kane, David Ryan, Ken Pullen, Mike Bona, and Dr. Robert Boessenecker to continue the excavation process.

By nightfall, the team had expanded the hole to nearly 25 feet wide and 10 feet deep and discovered several more bones—one lower mandible, the sternum, 10 vertebrae, including the atlas, multiple ribs, a flipper bone, and multiple throat bones.

“That’s all that we were able to locate in the bottom of the hole as of last week, but the hole needs to be expanded…so we can look for the rest of the animal,” Basak said.

The lower mandible was finally freed from the hole by about 9:30 p.m. on March 31 and a few hours later the 6-foot-long, 2,000-pound block containing the skull was also freed, according to Basak.

Dr. Boessenecker, a research fellow at the College of Charleston’s Mace Brown Museum of Natural History and one of the world’s leading experts on Eomysticetes, called the specimen a rare find as less than 20 complete skulls exist worldwide.

“It is likely to be more complete than the original specimen of Eomysticetus that was discovered in the 1970s,” he explained. “The more complete a fossil is, the more you can tell about its functional anatomy and how it may have behaved in life.”

Eomysticetes were the largest living whales during the Oligocene Epoch which dates back about 33.9 million to 23 million years ago, according to the American Museum of Natural History. They are believed to have been between 25 and 35 feet long, which is much smaller than modern baleen whales.

Researchers also believe that while the whales may have already had baleen, a filter-feeding system, which allowed them to eat zooplankton. There is also evidence to suggest that Eomysticetes may have also had a few residual teeth, according to experts.

Remains of the extinct whales have primarily been found in South Carolina, New Zealand, Japan, Washington, and Oregon. But, Dr. Boessenecker said the first named specimen of Eomysticetus was discovered in Ladson.

“There’s some isotopic evidence that they perhaps underwent seasonal migration,” he said.

After experiencing machinery-related setbacks, Basak said she hopes the team will continue the excavation efforts in the coming weeks.

“Knowing what this specimen will do for science is kind of mind-blowing, especially if we’re able to locate the rest of the animal and bring it to a point where it’s the most complete specimen of its kind,” she continued.

If you find a fossil in the ground or on the beach in the Charleston area, you can reach out to the Mace Brown Museum for identification.

BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) - On a stretch of Interstate 26 where construction has limited and changed the road temporarily, the number of accidents has significantly increased over the last year.

The South Carolina Department of Transportation started construction on Interstate 26 between Exit 187 to State Highway 27 and Exit 194 to Jedburg Road in 2022. The project includes the widening of I-26, interchange improvements and two twin bridge replacements.

Since construction began, some Lowcountry drivers say they are concerned about the number of crashes and problems the construction has caused.

On February 19, a crash near the construction involving 10 vehicles sent nine people to area hospitals and lanes closed for hours.

“The traffic is horrible. It takes me a good minute to get home when I leave here, and I’m working right across the road,” Michael Arana, who lives and works in the area, says.

Data for I-26 near mile marker 189 between the Ridgeville and Jedburg Road Exits shows a total of 398 crashes in the area in both 2022 to 2023, according to the South Carolina Department of Public Safety.

The total number of collisions in 2022 was 163 with that number continuing to increase to 235 in 2023. Over the last two years, 133 people have been injured in total with four fatal collisions.

South Carolina Highway Patrol Lance Cpl. Nick Pye says drivers need to take the initiative, day in and day out, to understand that driving is the most dangerous thing a normal person would do on a daily basis.

“There are times to where you might make an error, you might make that bad decision to send that text message or drive a little fast. When you’re in a construction zone, your margin for error is going to decrease. It’s not going to be as big as it would be on a normal roadway,” Pye says.

In 2023, the following numbers from the South Carolina Department of Public Safety break down the specifics surrounding the total number of collisions:

Looking at the reason for the collision is also something the department provided along with the previous data. Out of 235 total collisions, 164 involved a motor vehicle, whether it was moving, stopped or parked.

The other collisions involved embankments, moveable objects, guardrails, work zone maintenance equipment, trees and deer.

“Just the other morning, there was a wreck where a car was in the ditch and flipped over right here,” Arana says. “Around that corner, it’s very bad because it’s only two lanes; one going this direction, one going the other.”

“It’s horrible, I mean when you come around that curve, there’s nothing you can do. It’s going to be too late,” he adds.

Concrete barricades block the emergency lane on both sides, creating a tough situation for first responders to reach vehicles involved in accidents.

“A lot of times, there’s something that we have to respond to quickly in order to clear up, to make it safer, to make sure those secondary crashes don’t happen,” Pye says. “We also want to make sure that we provide safety to the workers as well.”

Construction for the project is not expected to be completed until the fall of 2026, which is why Pye says drivers need to remain aware and focused.

“There’s no surprise to when a construction zone is coming up. There’s plenty of signage out there saying, ‘Hey, construction zone two miles ahead,’” Pye says. “We ask that you always limit distractions, make sure you’re doing the speed limit, make sure you got your seat belt on and make sure you don’t drink and drive.”

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