The Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) has received full approval for its harbour expansion project which will see the Port of Savannah being deepened to 47ft in order to receive the largest post-panamax vessels.
This approval is of huge strategic advantage for the port – the work will mean that it is ideally poised to take advantage of an increased number of these larger vessels calling at US east coast ports when the Panama Canal extension is completed in 2015.
GPA executive director, Curtis Foltz, told Port Strategy: “The 10 year capital improvement plan calls for an additional US$1bn investment to, in part, expand the Port of Savannah's container facility to accommodate 6.5mn 20ft Equivalent Unit containers annually on the existing 1200 acre facility. Improvements include additional equipment, reconfigured container yard areas, expanded rail facilities and gate and technology systems to complement additional road improvements made by the State of Georgia."
He added: "Since the US Army Corps of Engineers issued its Record of Decision, or final approval of the SHEP, the deepening project can move forward immediately with preliminary engineering and design work. The actual construction of the project is expected to begin in 2013 and be completed in 2016."
And it’s a major milestone for the port authority culminating in what has been a 15 year effort and collaboration between the GPA, US Environmental Protection Agency, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service and other federal and state agencies.
Corps of Engineers studies show that post-Panamax vessels more efficiently served by a deeper harbour in Savannah will lower shipping costs for containerised trade by $213m a year over the next 50 years, for a total economic benefit of $10.65bn during that span – this in turn could lower the bottom line for more than 21,000 US businesses, and thousands of international businesses shipping via the Port of Savannah.
The project will also see general navigation improved at the port, with wider channel turns and a larger turning basin.
