Georgia Ports approves $65.6 million in container yard upgrades

The Georgia Ports Authority has approved contracts totaling $65.6 million for container yard upgrades at the Port of Savannah’s Ocean Terminal, a 200-acre facility just downriver from GPA’s main container port.

The infrastructure upgrades should deliver greater container capacity by late 2027, according to GPA President and CEO Griff Lynch. The changes include three project components: earth compacting to prepare the site to hold container stacks, removal of a former bridge pier, and preliminary utility installation behind the wharf structure. 

Previously approved upgrades at Ocean Terminal include the purchase of eight ship-to-shore cranes, refurbishing the wharf structure, and construction of an overpass for direct access to US 17. When all work is complete, Ocean Terminal’s annual capacity will grow from 300,000 twenty-foot equivalent container units to more than 1.5 million TEUs.

The work will be funded through revenue bonds GPA issued in 2022. And Lynch reported to the board that GPA anticipates a third straight month of growth in March.

In additional upgrades, GPA’s ports of Brunswick and Savannah will receive a total of $82.7 million in federal funding for maintenance dredging and harbor improvements in a six-bill budget package passed by Congress three weeks ago.