Sept.15, 2021
Greetings!
The number of containers on Garden City Terminal remains elevated, at more than 76,000 as of Monday, or 15,000 above our goal. The current inventory is an increase of 1,900 boxes compared to early last week. The dwell time for loaded import boxes has begun to edge downward from 11.81 days last week to 10.37 days this week, but still is well over the target of four days.
A timely solution is to transition more cargo to rail, where our operation is achieving dwell times of less than 30 hours. The ratio of cargo moving by train has slipped by 2 percent, when it should be moving in the opposite direction. Not only is there greater capacity on rail, but intermodal containers are returning to terminal 60 percent faster. For containers moving by truck, on-terminal dwell plus the average street dwell at warehouses equals 25 days. Meanwhile, a box moved by rail to the Appalachian Regional Port can be returned and ready for load-back in seven to 10 days.
Additionally, I’d like to encourage customers to take greater advantage of our 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday truck gate hours. Last Saturday, Garden City Terminal completed 3,000 moves, but we have the capacity to do nearly twice that through Gate 4. If the demand were there to open all Garden City gates, we could handle 13,000 truck moves every Saturday.
In recent months, GPA has expedited several infrastructure projects to increase capacity and improve cargo flow.
Ongoing Projects
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GPA’s Peak Capacity project: 30 percent complete. The project will add 800,000 TEUs of annual capacity in two phases. Phase I, which opens in December, will deliver three new rubber-tired gantry crane rows. Phase II, to be complete in the spring of 2022, will add a fourth RTG row.
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Berth 1 improvements: 12 percent complete as of Aug. 31. Completion is expected in 2023. Construction crews are currently demolishing the old dock at Berth 1, installing a dock face wall along the new alignment and preparing for crane rail installation. Demolition is 40 percent complete. The new dock will allow Savannah to simultaneously serve four 16,000-TEU vessels, and three additional ships.
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Eight new ship-to-shore cranes: 15 percent complete. The new cranes will bring Garden City Terminal’s total fleet to 38. The new cranes arrive in 2023.
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GPA will add a new 25-acre chassis yard along Ga. 21 in March 2022
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The Savannah Harbor deepening, a project of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is now more than 90 percent complete. The project should see substantial completion in December 2021. With a high-tide depth of 54 feet, the deeper harbor will allow vessels in the 16,000+ TEU range to take on heavier loads with fewer tidal restrictions. Dredges are currently working two sections in the inner harbor. The channel portion at the mouth of the Savannah River, constituting 7 percent of the project, has not yet been started
Coming Soon
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Garden City Terminal West Expansion: Groundbreaking set for Spring 2022. On 92 acres at the corner of Bourne Avenue and Jimmy Deloach Parkway, GPA’s West Expansion will add 750,000 TEUs in 2023.
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Northeast Georgia Inland Port: Earthwork activities anticipated to begin early 2022. Completion expected mid-to late-2024.
Sincerely,
