Corps, GPA officials to sign partnership agreement for harbor deepening

Courtesy Photo | Early morning arrival of the CMA CGM Figaro, an 8,500 TEU cargo vessel. The Figaro is the largest vessel to date to call on the Savannah Harbor's Garden City Port. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo by Billy Birdwell)  

SAVANNAH, GA, UNITED STATES

10.08.2014

Story by Billy Birdwell 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District

SAVANNAH, Ga. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Georgia Department of Transportation and the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) signed the Project Partnership Agreement (PPA) today in Atlanta at 11 a.m. to officially launch construction on the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project (SHEP).

Corps Savannah District Commander Col. Thomas Tickner and GPA Director Curtis Foltz signed the document representing the Corps, and GPA respectively.

“The signing of the PPA marks the starting point for construction on the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project,” said Tickner. “This sets us on the path to improving transportation of goods into and out of this harbor in an environmentally sensitive manner, which will benefit the area, the region and the nation.”

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, who hosted the signing event, said that SHEP is a vitally important project not just for the Southeast, but the nation.

“This pivotal link in our logistics network will aid in the prompt delivery of valuable cargo to and from every corner of Georgia and, in turn, preserve and create jobs and encourage economic growth,” said Deal. “I’ve said time and again that ‘it’s time to start moving dirt,’ and now we can.”

The PPA will allow the Army Corps of Engineers to use state funds already appropriated by the legislature to begin construction while the Corps awaits congressional appropriations for the federal portion of the project. The State of Georgia has already set aside $209 million for its share of the deepening with another $35 million available in early 2015.

The Corps of Engineers has contracts prepared for competitive bidding for the early actions to deepen the harbor. The deepening will allow larger ships to load more fully when they call on Savannah. For the Post-Panamax II vessels, the extra 5 feet of depth will allow them to carry another 3,600 cargo containers in each transit (78 percent more). GPA’s Garden City port is the nation’s fourth busiest container port and the second busiest on the East Coast. It set a record of 3.1 million 20-foot equivalent units (standard measure for containers) passing through the port in Georgia’s financial year 2014.

According to an extensive study by the Corps, a deeper shipping channel allows larger and fewer ships to move the same amount of goods at a lower transportation cost. Unloading and reloading fewer ships would be faster, allowing goods to move in and out of the port more quickly. Fewer, larger ships also lessen congestion in the harbor, according to the report. A deeper channel also means the ships can enter and leave with less delay waiting for high tides. The project would also generate jobs across the region, especially in Georgia and South Carolina.

Funded by the federal government and the state of Georgia, the economic portion of the studies examined the characteristics of the future international shipping fleet, harbor commerce, current and future trade routes, and the capacity of the Garden City terminal on the Savannah River. The Corps’ study also indicated for each $1 invested in deepening, the U.S. will gain a benefit of $5.50.

The earliest actions in the deepening will focus on environmental mitigation and extending the shipping channel an additional 7 miles into the Atlantic Ocean. Some of the environmental mitigation actions include:

• installing a dissolved oxygen injection system for the harbor,
• building a fish bypass around the New Savannah Bluff Lock & Dam near Augusta,
• rerouting freshwater to protect valuable wetlands in the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge
• restoring brackish marsh on Onslow Island,
• creating a fresh water impoundment for the City of Savannah’s water treatment plant, and
• recovering the Civil War ironclad CSS Georgia from the bed of the Savannah River.

The Corps of Engineers estimates the cost of the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project will be approximately $706 million, including construction and environmental mitigation costs. The costs will be split approximately 60 percent federal and 40 percent state funds.

• Date Taken: 10.08.2014
• Date Posted: 10.08.2014 12:13
• Story ID: 144605
• Location: SAVANNAH, GA, US