Georgia expanding inland port network to provide economical, green alternative

With one inland port already succeeding and a second such facility slated to open by 2018, the Georgia Ports Authority is advancing a supply chain concept that supports sustained savings for shippers plus a cleaner environment. Middle Georgia’s privately funded Cordele Inland Port, which began under partnership with GPA in mid-2013, and GPA’s Appalachian Regional Port, on schedule to open in two years in the northwest corner of the Peach State, are eventually to be joined by additional inland intermodal facilities, according to John D. Trent, GPA’s senior director of strategic operations. “We see two or three more potential inland terminals that can be served by rail and truck,” Trent told the American Journal of Transportation. Although declining to offer site details, Trent said the proliferation of inland ports as part of the state’s Network Georgia initiative aims to efficiently facilitate cargo moves between interior points and the GPA’s Port of Savannah, which is the East Coast’s second-busiest containerport. “While ports in states to the north and south of us were using financial incentives in the form of discounting rates to entice cargo, we at GPA looked for ways to create a discounted supply chain, if you will, through a model that ultimately is sustainable,” Trent said. Trent said the concept is “going real well” at the 40-acre Cordele Inland Port, situated in the shadow of Interstate 75, a 170-mile short-line rail haul from Savannah docks. Peanut and cotton exports are leading the way, while GPA and Cordele Intermodal Services Inc. are incrementally building import business. Units are now moving through the Cordele facility at a pace of between 8,000 and 10,000 a year. About 225 miles north up I-75 and U.S. 411 from Cordele, a 42-acre site in Northwest Georgia’s Murray County is being readied by GPA and Class I rail provider CSX Transportation for the Appalachian Regional Port, which is slated to open by 2018 with an annual capacity of 50,000 containers. A 10-year plan calls for a doubling of that capability. “From a logistics perspective, it provides an alternative to truck into a very busy region of the United States,” Trent said. “It really creates that connectivity between Savannah and that market in order to provide cheaper and ultimately cleaner moves.” By using the Appalachian Regional Port, shippers may realize per-container transportation savings of between $50 and $200 for cargo heading between Savannah and a region extending from North Georgia to Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky and the Carolinas, according to Trent. At the same time, the inland facility is anticipated to annually take as many as 50,000 truck moves of some 350 miles each off highways, including in congested metropolitan Atlanta, and the terminal is expected to create jobs and other economic benefits in an area that has lost some of its luster as a carpet industry hub. The distance between Murray County and Savannah is substantial enough that truckers who are federally limited to 11 hours a day behind the wheel simply don’t have time to complete a roundtrip in a single day. Trent said he expects imports – including consumer goods, parts for nearby automakers and materials for carpet manufacturing – to initially outstrip exports through the Appalachian Regional Port. But he added that a ready supply of empty containers should be available for return moves to Savannah of outbound goods such as forest products and automotive components. Citing potential for spurring more manufacturing and distribution centers in Northwest Georgia, Trent commented, “We’re excited about a lot of activities the Appalachian Regional Port will bring.” And it’s apparent the same will be able to be said in the future about inland ports in other corners of Georgia as well.