Griff Lynch, executive director of the Georgia Ports Authority, introduced three-day CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern service between the port and Chicago while addressing an audience of 1,400 at Thursday’s Savannah State of the Port meeting
Calling the service a “game changer” in the port’s growth, Lynch says, “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.”
As a result of increasing rail demand, the Port of Savannah is in the midst of a $220-million expansion of its rail facilities, says Will McKnight, the ports authority’s board chairman.
Phase I of the ports authority’s Mason Mega Rail terminal is slated for completion in the spring of 2020, with Phase II done the following fall. The expansion will double the port’s rail lift capacity to 1 million containers per year, officials say.
“The Mason Mega Rail Terminal will be the largest on-dock rail facility at any port in North America,” McKnight says. “It will allow the Authority to shift more of its cargo mix from truck to rail, so that we can grow our overall volumes without congestion at our truck gates.”
Savannah has gambled on massive infrastructure projects targeted at securing larger container ships now able to pass through the Panama Canal following the canal’s expansion three years ago.
The effort to date apparently has been successful as the Georgia Ports Authority reports record volumes in containers, total tonnage, and freight moved by rail.
Twenty-foot equivalent container traffic was up 7% at the end of the fiscal year in June to 4.5 million.
“The market has clearly chosen the Port of Savannah as the Southeastern hub for containerized trade,” says Lynch. “To fulfill the growing responsibility placed on our deepwater terminals, we have developed a plan to double our capacity.”
Current capacity is 5.5 million TEUs; plans call for a capacity of 11 million.
Besides rail, port officials say other expansion projects include more cranes, revamped dock space to accommodate more large ships, and a new terminal at Hutchinson Island.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is in the final stages of deepening the Savannah harbor, officials say.
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Everything we consume ships via boat from Europe and Asia. So yes the volume is there. Apparently a two driver truck crew taking 14hrs from Sav to Chicago isn’t the most cost effective way to ship or all of our UPS/Fedex ground shipments wouldn’t take 3 days either…and thats a premium retail price for those shipments. With two driver trucking, one driver gets paid to sleep while the other drives….if that weren’t the case few people would work a job where you are not getting paid while stuck on the job.
John Rice – this is really about various beneficiaries of corporate welfare financed by public money, isn’t it?
I guess the real question is how long does it take the drive the container from Savannah to Chicago?
@Garland Hicks: Yes, with a 2 driver crew you can get 1 container to Chicago in 14 hours. But what about 300 containers? Can you get 300 sets of drivers to get them all to Chicago in 3 days?
Three days? A truck could make it in one day.
The ships barely fit past downtown Savannah as it is. The river rises 3 feet when they pass. I remember waking up one morning in my hotel room on the 10th floor and here was the bridge crew looking out the window at me eye to eye. Now they want to raise the Talmadge Bridge, which is a cable stayed reinforced concrete structure to get better ship clearances. It would have to be completely replaced!
This irrational race to maintain port supremacy is getting a bit out of control. VW just moved all VW/Audi/Porsche importing from the Port of Brunswick, Georgia to the Port of Jacksonville, Florida. Georgia is about to lose its huge wood pellet export market as Europe is beginning to shut down their coal fired plants.
The Port of Charleston (South Carolina) is also rolling out upgrades and express rail service.
The Port of Jacksonville is about to dredge the St Johns River down 7 more feet for 13 miles inland, not just for cargo , but also for larger cruise ships.
Is there really enough business from Asia and Europe to support all of these ports upgrading their rail infrastructure?