Savannah’s intermodal growth inspires Georgia port leadership

Already boasting North America’s largest single container terminal, and with its Savannah containerport capacity set to double, the Port of Savannah is poised to also soon offer the continent’s busiest on-dock rail facility – and that gets Griff Lynch, executive director of the Georgia Ports Authority, unabashedly stoked.

“There’s no way to deny that something special is happening in Georgia ports right now,” Lynch today [Sept. 12] told a gathering of nearly 1,400 in delivering his annual state of the port address.

Lynch, in his fourth year at the GPA helm, detailed plans for sustained growth of the Port of Savannah – and its inland rail links – at the luncheon event, hosted by the Georgia Ports Authority and the Propeller Club of the United States-Port of Savannah at the Savannah International Trade and Convention Center.
The $200 million Mason Mega Rail Terminal at the GPA’s Garden City Terminal is to see its first phase enter operation in six months, Lynch said, and, by the time its second phase opens for business in late 2020, the Mega Rail installation is to offer an annual rail lift capacity of about 2 million 20-foot-container units. That’s twice the port’s current rail capacity and would be the most of any North American on-dock facility.
Even before the new intermodal hub is open, the GPA is announcing new rail service, with Lynch using the address as a forum for introducing dual rail offerings from the Port of Savannah to Chicago, with cargo able to reach the Windy City in 67 hours, or fewer than three days.
“Our expanding offerings with Norfolk Southern and CSX to the Midwest will be a game-changer in the growth of cargo at the Port of Savannah,” Lynch said. “We’re now moving containers from ship to departing rail in only 24 hours – two and a half times faster than our previous schedule – which makes Savannah competitive on time and lower on cost compared to traditional cargo routings [via the Los Angeles/Long Beach gateway]… That is world-class!”
Beyond Savannah, intermodal links are expanding as well, including through the GPA’s newest inland facility, the Appalachian Regional Port, which opened in August 2018 in Georgia’s northwest corner.
The Garden City Terminal intermodal rail hub is part of an overall 10-year, $2.5 billion expansion taking place at the Port of Savannah, which, by 2035 at latest, is to bring its annual capacity to 11 million TEUs – twice its current throughput capability of 5.5 million TEUs.
The GPA, Lynch said, plans to expand beyond its 1,200-acre footprint at Garden City Terminal to establish a new containerport facility on Hutchison Island, on a 200-acre site across the Savannah River channel from Ocean Terminal. It is to have annual throughput capacity of 2.5 million TEUs.
At the Garden City Terminal, six additional ship-to-shore cranes are to be placed in service in 2020, bringing that contingent to 36 cranes, more than any other North American terminal. Lynch said GPA looks to have a dozen further cranes with 170-foot lift height in place by 2027.
In addition, GPA plans, within three years, to realign berthing to facilitate docking for more 14,000-TEU-capacity vessels on the Garden City Terminal’s downriver end.
And the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is now in the final phase of the $1 billion Savannah Harbor Expansion Project, with work to begin by September’s end on inner harbor dredging.
The Port of Savannah already is moving record volumes, having seen 4.5 million TEUs cross docks in its fiscal year ended June 30, up 7.3 percent from the preceding 12-month period.
The Savannah gateway’s container volume presently trails only those of Los Angeles/Long Beach and New York/New Jersey. On the East Coast, Lynch said, Savannah has 21 percent of container trade market share, behind just the 31 percent share of New York/New Jersey.
“The market has clearly chosen the Port of Savannah as the Southeastern hub for containerized trade,” Lynch said. “To fulfill the growing responsibility placed on our deepwater terminals, we have developed a plan to double our capacity.”
Before Lynch took the stage, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp called Georgia ports “the best in our country” and emphasized the economic development benefits of the Port of Savannah, citing port-related announcements of expansions and new business accounting for nearly $5 billion in investments, generating 12,000 Georgia jobs, in fiscal 2019.
“The manufacturing and logistics sectors are key components of our economy,” Kemp said, “and I am excited for the opportunities created for hardworking Georgians.”
GPA Board Chairman Will McKnight told the gathering that Savannah offers “the most dynamic global containerport hub in the world,” adding that the authority is diligently working to guarantee ability to meet future needs.

“What has set Savannah above the competition is our ability to scale up in advance of market needs, so that we are ready when our customers are ready to grow,” McKnight said. “Our terminal infrastructure plan adheres to our investment philosophy of always keeping infrastructure ahead of current demand. This will ensure the GPA is prepared to handle the next wave of cargo expansion.”
Comprehensive coverage, including reception photos, is slated to appear in the Sept. 23 edition of the American Journal of Transportation.