Georgia ports launch rail initiative to reach into ‘new battleground’

A new strategic rail initiative aims to further expand the market reach of the Port of Savannah not only throughout the Southeast but also the Midwest. Griffith V. “Griff” Lynch, executive director of the Georgia Ports Authority, made the announcement Sept. 15 before a crowd of more than 1,400 in the annual state of the port address hosted by GPA and the Propeller Club of the United States-Port of Savannah at the Savannah International Trade and Convention Center.

The rail initiative – dubbed GPA’s Mid-American Arc – includes a $128 million project, backed by a $44 million U.S. Department of Transportation grant, to link the two rail yards now serving the Port of Savannah’s Garden City Terminal and double the rail facility’s annual lift capacity to 1 million containers. Construction of the rail expansion project, forming the Port of Savannah International Multimodal Connector, is slated to take four years. The “mega rail terminal,” combining yards currently separately served by CSX and Norfolk Southern trains, will, according to Lynch, be “a state-of-the-industry facility the likes of which does not exist certainly on the East Coast and maybe all of North America.” Lynch said the added rail capacity will enable the Port of Savannah to compete in “a new battleground” extending along an arc from Atlanta to Memphis, St. Louis, Chicago and the Ohio Valley, with ability to form unit trains as long as 10,000 feet. Such capabilities should prove particularly fruitful with Savannah – already the fourth-busiest U.S. containerport – further becoming a favored first-in and last-out port of call for supersized containerships transiting the newly expanded Panama Canal, Lynch said. The rail development should “drive from the West Coast to the East Coast” additional containerized cargo traffic to and from Asia, he said. Lynch said the count of 14 ships with capacities of 10,000 or more 20-foot-equivalent container units calling Savannah in recent weeks matches the exact same number calling at each of the Port of Virginia and Port of New York & New Jersey during that time, adding, “We are a gateway port.” He said that the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project, to deepen the Port of Savannah’s outer harbor to 49 feet at low tide (56 feet at high tide) and inner harbor to 47 feet at low tide (54 feet at high tide) is moving forward toward its scheduled 2020 completion date. Plans call for adding eight more ship-to-shore cranes at GPA’s single-operator container terminal at Garden City, to bring such contingent to 30, Lynch said, adding that Georgia and South Carolina port boards are diligently working cooperatively with a joint authority to make a reality by 2030 a new deepwater port facility in Jasper County, South Carolina, about 20 miles up the Savannah River from Garden City. In addition, Lynch used the forum to announce that flooring retailer Floor & Decor, already a major Port of Savannah customer, plans to build a 2.5 million-square-foot distribution center in Pooler, about 10 miles from GPA docks. He issued a “call to action” to developers to bring distribution center activity to some 21,000 acres of fully entitled land proximate to GPA berths. Also, Lynch, who in July assumed the helm at the Georgia Ports Authority after five years as GPA chief operating officer, took the opportunity to introduce his newly appointed successor in the COO slot, Ed McCarthy, who comes aboard at GPA this month after serving in a similar position at CMA CGM Americas. Before Lynch took the stage, Georgia Speaker of the House David Ralston, R-Ellijay, noted a proliferation of Peach State highway projects, including a direct link opened earlier this year between the Port of Savannah and Interstate 95 and I-16, that will help speed trucks between the port and inland destinations. And James L. “Jimmy” Allgood, chairman of the Georgia Ports Authority, cited the $50 billion annual direct impact of GPA operations upon the state’s economy, commenting, “Unprecedented opportunities stand before us.”