A bit of news late last week from coastal Georgia resonated more than 200 miles away in northeast Georgia, as Lt Gen Thomas Bostick, commander of the US Army Corps of Engineers, officially marked the beginning of the Savannah Harbour Expansion Project.
The $700 million project, with money including $266 million in state outlays, will deepen seven miles of the Savannah River channel from 42 feet to 47 feet, allowing larger ships to use the Port of Savannah and giving them more scheduling flexibility.
According to the Savannah Morning News, Bostick reminded members of the media attending his port tour that continuing work there requires additional federal budget allocations, but he also said the project “is one that is economically beneficial and that makes it a high priority project for the country. We will do everything in our power to get this done as quickly as we can.”
Locally, the official word that work on the Savannah port project is underway was greeted enthusiastically by Josh Fenn, president/CEO and economic development director for the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce. “It’s very important to our strategy here,” he said. “The better the services there are, the better it’s going to be for us.”
Even this far inland, the port is a vital link for linking Jackson County’s strong agricultural and industrial sectors with their markets around the world. The same is true for many other industries and businesses across northeast Georgia, with a recent study by the University of Georgia’s Selig Center for Economic Growth showing one out of every 12 jobs in the state more than 350,000 full- and part-time jobs — exists as a result of Georgia’s two ports, in Savannah and Brunswick.
In northeast Georgia, nearly 14,000 jobs owe their existence to the ports, according to the UGA study. When Caterpillar decided to bring a manufacturing facility to Athens-Clarke and Oconee counties in 2012, access to the coastal Georgia ports was cited as one reason for that decision. The company uses the Port of Savannah as its primary port.
“It’s not the Port of Savannah,” Fenn said. “It’s the port of Georgia. It impacts every sector of our economy.”
Officials from the Georgia Ports Authority routinely visit communities across the state to update them on activities at the state’s ports, and will coincidentally be in Jackson County on Wednesday, Fenn said. Last year, authority official Cliff Pyron addressed the Athens-Clarke county Economic Development Department’s Industry Appreciation Dinner.
Earlier this month, Curtis Foltz, the authority’s executive director, told the Associated Press the state’s two ports handled a record 2.84 million tons of total cargo in April, as more than 335,000 cargo containers moved through the Port of Savannah.
One reason that the Savannah harbour deepening project is good news for Georgia is that the port will now be able to handle “post Panamax” ships the name given to larger container vessels — on a full-time basis, according to Fenn. Currently, those ships must wait until high tide to enter or leave the port, he explained.
