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Published Monday, February 20, 2012 in Local

Special

Curtis Foltz, Georgia Ports Authority executive director, stands before a series of fuel-saving electrified refrigerated container racks and two rubber-tired gantry cranes aimed at reducing emissions at the Savannah port.

Savannah port expansion is important for Coweta

From STAFF REPORTS

news@newnan.com

The expansion of the Savannah harbor has been approved for an additional $2.5 million in federal dollars.

Expansion of the harbor has been cited as a key need in making the port an even larger economic engine for the entire state and region. The ports in Savannah and Brunswick -- which administratively are one unit -- are used by numerous industries and businesses in Coweta County.

Millions of dollars in components and products come through the ports and then to Coweta, and millions of completed products are shipped from Coweta to the ports for shipping around the world.

"It is a simple but important connect-the-dots situation," said Candace Boothby, president of the Newnan-Coweta Chamber of Commerce. "Coweta has major international businesses that utilize the Savannah port to import and export tens of millions of dollars of products. This creates new jobs and stabilizes current employment in Coweta."

The Savannah Harbor Expansion Project received the additional $2.5 million in construction funding on Feb. 8. In the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' work plan released for the remainder of fiscal year 2012, the USACE allocated a total of $3,088,000 to the work.

That included $588,000 originally budgeted, with the additional amount coming from a fund created by Congress for underfunded port projects around the nation.

"The credit for this important new funding goes to Georgia's delegation in Washington and other Congressional leaders, whose efforts will move this project forward in a significant way," said Curtis Foltz, the Georgia Ports Authority's executive director.

According to the USACE, deepening the Savannah Harbor up to 48 feet will bring more than $115 million in annual economic benefits to the United States, primarily by lowering transportation costs. With "excellent transportation infrastructure already in place," including two Class I rail terminals on terminal, the Savannah Harbor project "will quickly provide the nation greatly needed benefits to recover from the economic downturn," according to Robert Morris, senior director of external affairs at GPA.

This new funding will be used to develop the detailed construction designs required to provide the deeper channel as well as the environmental mitigation components of the project. The design work will need to be completed before moving to construction -- following the approvals by the Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of the Army and administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The harbor project is necessary if the Georgia ports are to serve a new class of larger container ships that are nearly three times the capacity of those currently able to transit the Panama Canal. In 2014, the Panama Canal expansion will be completed and increase the maximum draft of vessels traveling to and from the U.S. East Coast from 39.5 feet to as much as 50 feet.

While the Port of Savannah regularly handles vessels that are too large to transit the Panama Canal, these vessels cannot load to their capacity.

The implications of the Panama Canal upgrade are "where the dot-connecting occurs," Boothby said. "The Panama Canal is being widened and deepened to accommodate more efficient super-cargo ships, but these vessels require ports that can accept them in order to do business there."

Boothby said the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project "is absolutely critical to the continued success of Coweta industries." If SHEP does not come to fruition, "these gargantuan ships will be forced to find other ports to unload their cargo," she said.

"The Corps should release the final study documents this spring -- clearing the way for federal approval of the project," Foltz said. "Once construction begins, we anticipate the deepening to be completed in 2016."

Gov. Nathan Deal noted the state has "more than $180 million in state funds that have either been committed or budgeted (which) will allow this project to stay on track." Deal pledged to "work closely with the Army Corps of Engineers to ensure this project is approved and the necessary funds are in place to begin construction in the coming months."

"The completion of the SHEP will have long-term positive economic benefits for Georgia, South Carolina, and a large percentage of the U.S. population served through the Port of Savannah," said Alec Poitevint, GPA's board chairman. "As the fourth largest container port in the country, the Port of Savannah serves approximately 21,000 companies in all 50 states, over 75 percent of which are headquartered outside of Georgia. This is truly a project of national significance."

The Ports of Savannah and Brunswick experienced record volumes in calendar year 2011 and handled 26.1 million tons of cargo, an additional 1.1 million tons, or a 4.3 percent increase from 2010.

"The Ports of Savannah and Brunswick achieved record volumes in 2011 despite the nation's economic challenges," said Foltz. "As our ports grow market share, Georgia's deepwater terminals provide American exporters an increasingly vital gateway to global trade."

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Savannah is second only to the Port of Los Angeles for the export of American containerized goods.

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