NEWS - Ports & Transportation

SBJ Staff

12/21/2009 - New super post-Panamax cranes, inter-modal facilities and technological upgrades contributed greatly to a 2009 that is shaping up to be the Port of Savannah’s second-best year ever.

When trying to achieve success amid the nation’s worst recession in decades, it also helps to have a diverse cargo mix that insulates Savannah’s port from the fickleness of consumer demand. The shipping industry’s equivalent of a deep bench has helped the port achieve its celebrated 37 percent growth in containerized cargo over the past five years.

In practice it works this way: Should the recession cause consumers to quit buying a certain product or category of products, other types of cargo can offset the potential for empty containers.

“The important thing about our success story is that it’s not built on a single element or item,” said Curtis Foltz, the Georgia Ports Authority’s COO and successor to Douglas Marchand, who is to step down as director on Jan. 1.

Further firming up the port’s standing for the future is continued modernization across the whole operation, Foltz said. The result is “a platform that is unparalleled in the nation,” he added.

Infrastructure and services grew in 2009 and will keep growing in the new year and the years beyond, according to Foltz.

February saw delivery of four super post-Panamax cranes that brought the Garden City Terminal fleet of ship-to-shore cranes to 23, the largest number of any facility in the country. The new cranes became operational in mid-year.

Fully assembled, the cranes are about 425 feet long, weigh 1,369 tons and rise 180 feet above the water with a 34-degree incline. They are designed to handle super post-Panamax vessels the size of 22 containers wide.

The cranes are part of the GPA’s long-term strategic growth plan to accommodate 6.5 million 20-foot equivalent unit containers, or TEUs,  by 2018, doubling the terminal’s current capacity, port officials say.

On Jan. 21, 2009, the port officially inaugurated the Chatham Intermodal Container Transfer Facility at the Garden City Terminal. The new facility features three working tracks at 2,145 feet each and 2,406 feet of storage tracks. The Port of Savannah is the only East Coast port to have two intermodal container transfer facilities within a terminal, port officials say.

The facility gives CSX its own intermodal station and designates the original intermodal station for the exclusive use of Norfolk Southern.

Now importers and exporters have a choice of using either rail line, Foltz noted, and added that both lines now give shippers daily service to Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C.

Savannah’s rising prominence as a rail hub led GPA officials to build the second intermodal station.  Rail freight handled by the port grew 128 percent between 2002 through 2008, port officials say.

On the technology side, the port is doing an information technology upgrade that by the end of 2010 will enable it to better communicate with customers, give customers improved tracking of their shipments and move the port closer to its goal of providing “seamless transport” of goods, Foltz said.

Meanwhile, several road projects that will more efficiently move goods in and out of the port are in various staging of construction or planning, according to Foltz. “Freight mobility beyond our ports is critically important,” he said, noting work is under way on projects “to assure long-term access to and from our roads."

Fotlz said he expects the Georgia Department of Transportation to award a bid soon for a mid-year start on a bridge overpass on Dean Forest Road (Georgia Highway 307) just outside the port’s Gate 4. “This will eliminate a railroad crossing just outside our gate,” he said.

The long-talked-about Jimmy Deloach Extension could be included in federal stimulus funding. “We hope to hear on that in January or February,” Foltz said.

The project would extend the Jimmy Deloach Parkway to Dean Forest and give trucks direct access to the port’s main gate.

“The real positive is that it’s all part of our integrated vision,” he said.