The U.S. Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) broke ground on its USD 126.7 million Mason Mega Rail Terminal. The expansion will increase the Port of Savannah’s rail lift capacity to 1 million containers per year. Garden City Terminal is already the South Atlantic region’s busiest intermodal gateway, handling 38 trains per week of import and export cargo. Once the Mason Mega Rail terminal is finalized, the Port of Savannah will have a state-of-the-art facility, unique to the U.S. East Coast.
In the first half of 2018, work will focus on constructing a pair of rail bridges that will carry a total of seven tracks connecting two existing intermodal container transfer facilities. The new terminal will begin coming online by the fall of 2019, with project completion in the fall of 2020.
When complete, Garden City Terminal will have a total of 180,000 feet of rail, 18 working tracks and the capability of building 10,000-foot unit trains on terminal. This will allow the Georgia Ports Authority to bring all rail switching onto the terminal, avoiding the use of nearly two dozen rail crossings – including those on Ga. Highways 21 and 25 – for improved vehicle traffic flow. The Georgia Ports Authority estimates that the new intermodal terminal will take more than 200,000 trucks off the road annually.
To serve the expanded rail yard, the GPA is also ordering eight rail-mounted gantry cranes. The rail-mounted gantry cranes will each span nine tracks for improved efficiency moving containers from trains to on-terminal jockey trucks.
The Mega Rail expansion is funded in part by a USD 44 million U.S. Department of Transportation FASTLANE grant administered by the Maritime Administration.
Share on:
