Team Commitment Crucial

Lynch said he believes the GPA’s team of port professionals is particularly critical to sustained success.

“I think what’s going to allow Savannah to stay at the top, first and foremost, is the team,” he said. “Here at the Georgia ports, we recognize that we’re really truly only as good as our last act or our last vessel worked and our last customer served. So, at the end of the day, we have to continue to redefine ourselves.

“We can’t get comfortable with thinking we are among the best,” he said. “We have to work hard to earn that each and every day, and that means making some painful decisions. Sometimes you have to go through growing pains to maintain that status.”

Griff Lynch, executive director of the Georgia Ports Authority, looks forward to sustained success of the GPA and its facilities.
Griff Lynch, executive director of the Georgia Ports Authority, looks forward to sustained success of the GPA and its facilities.

For example, Lynch noted a recent initiative to begin moving Port of Savannah containers through Ocean Terminal in addition to the 1,200-acre Garden City Terminal, thus helping facilitate completion of infrastructure enhancements at the latter installation, already North America’s largest single container terminal, while minimizing potential disruptions for customers.

“We’re going to expand capacity even more, make the changes we need to make and then bring the volume back in,” Lynch said.

“I think the other really exciting thing is the new Savannah Container Terminal that will be built on Hutchinson Island,” Lynch said, referring to a 200-acre site across the Savannah River channel from the GPA’s Ocean Terminal. “That project is going to really get under way this year.”

Lynch said the permit development process for the Hutchinson Island facility has begun, adding, “By 2025, I would love for us to have the first phase of that Savannah Container Terminal opening up. That is to make sure we can secure not only the big ships but also continued growth of our customers.”

The present-day Garden City Terminal at the Port of Savannah is North America’s busiest single-terminal container facility.
The present-day Garden City Terminal at the Port of Savannah is North America’s busiest single-terminal container facility.

He said the GPA’s longer-term strategy, for after the Hutchinson Island facility is built and Garden City throughput is maximized, calls, in the 2040 timeframe, for joint pursuit along with the South Carolina Ports Authority of development of an all-new deepwater containerport, dubbed Jasper Ocean Terminal, farther up the Savannah River in Jasper County, South Carolina.