Georgia Ports Authority full speed ahead

Year-over-year TEUs handled climb 14 percent and intermodal rail volumes move up 20 percent in March.    The Georgia Ports Authority in March handled 355,208 TEUs — 159,699 TEUs of loaded imports, 132,822 of loaded exports and 62,688 of empty containers — splashing up 14 percent from 12 months prior, according to the latest statistics released by the port authority.
   For the first three months of 2018, GPA handled 1.04 million TEUs, up 6.3 percent from the corresponding 2017 period.
   March also was a busy month for roll-on/roll-off and machinery units at the Port of Brunswick and the Ocean Terminal up the coast in Savannah. For the month of March, GPA said, “Colonel’s Island Terminal in Brunswick handled 66,144 cars, trucks and tractors, while Ocean Terminal added 4,050, for a total 70,194, a 17.2 percent increase.”
   Meanwhile, GPA’s intermodal rail volumes for March sped up 20 percent year-over-year.
   GPA broke ground on its Mason Mega Rail Terminal at the Port of Savannah in March. GPA officials estimate the new terminal will begin coming online by the fall of 2019, with project completion in the fall of 2020.
   In August, GPA is slated to open its Appalachian Regional Port in Murray County, Ga. The Appalachian Regional Port, through CSX, will provide a direct, 388-mile rail route to the Port of Savannah’s Garden City Terminal.
   GPA’s Port of Brunswick ranks No. 1 for new import vehicles in the United States and is the nation’s second-busiest port for import and export vehicles. About 75 miles up the coast, the Port of Savannah’s Garden City Terminal is the largest container facility in the nation at 1,200 acres.