The Georgia Ports Authority is preparing to take on additional trade through its $1.9 billion infrastructure expansion. The projects will refurbish three berths to accommodate big ships and add 3.5 million twenty-foot equivalent container units of annual capacity.
At Garden City Terminal, improvements to Container Berth 1 have increased annual berth capacity by 1.5 million TEUs, or 25 percent. The project was completed in July.
In tandem with the expanded berth, GPA has ordered eight new electric ship-to-shore cranes. The first four arrived in February and were commissioned in July; the next four arrive in August and will be operational by December.
The Garden City Terminal West expansion will add 1 million TEUs of annual yard capacity. Supported by 15 electric rubber-tired gantry cranes, the 100-acre site will be completed in phases in 2023 and 2024.
Just upriver of Garden City Terminal, the 300,000 square-foot Savannah Transload Facility will move goods from containers to over-the-road trailers for delivery. The STF includes a yard with three container stacks and nine rubber-tired gantry cranes, providing an annual capacity of 500,000 TEUs. It is scheduled for completion in August 2023.
GPA is also expanding its container operation at Savannah's Ocean Terminal to take in the entire 200-acre facility. Berth and container yard renovations will expand the terminal's annual capacity to 2 million TEUs. Eight additional ship-to-shore cranes and 55 hybrid yard cranes have been ordered. Renovations will be completed in two stages in 2025 and 2026.
At the Port of Brunswick, development has begun for new structures and land to serve auto and machinery processing at Colonel’s Island Terminal. The projects will increase Brunswick’s capacity from 1.2 million to 1.4 million vehicles per year.
Georgia’s deepwater terminals in Savannah and Brunswick ensure the continuous flow of goods to and from global destinations. These vital gateways move retail shipments, refrigerated cargo, cars and machinery, bulk, and breakbulk cargo.
The Port of Savannah is the third busiest container gateway in the U.S., while Brunswick is the nation’s second busiest Roll-on/Roll-off hub. GPA provides greater scheduling flexibility and market reach with 35 weekly containership services, direct interstate connections, and on-terminal rail. The Port of Savannah is the westernmost major container port on the U.S. East Coast.