Inland port weighed for Georgia

Inland port weighed for Georgia Development officials are proposing creation of an inland port in southern Georgia, in the city of Cordele that they think could boost the region's economy and help ease road congestion around the Port Savannah.
   Cordele is located on Interstate 75 about 60 miles south of Macon and 100 miles north of the Florida border.
   Proponents believe the port could help bolster the economy not only of Georgia, but northwestern Florida, southern Alabama and southeastern Mississippi, said Bruce Drennan, executive director of the Cordele-Crisp Industrial Development Council.
   The project is expected to cost about $4.7 million initially, but officials are only asking for a $500,000 appropriation from the Georgia Legislature, said Brad Lafevers, chief executive officer of the Heart of Georgia Railroad. The rest of the money would come from grants from existing programs.
   Cargo would travel most of the 180-mile distance between Savannah and Cordele over two short line railroads, the Heart of Georgia and Georgia Central Railroads — with the last mile or so to Savannah made over either CSX or Norfolk Southern lines.
   Lafevers said the railroads would be able accommodate double stack trains and that the inland port could provide shippers with a number of benefits, including the ability to avoid the 180-mile truck dray to Savannah, as well as the ability to marshal large numbers of containers for an export shipment.
   The ability to stage large amounts of cargo might be particularly attractive to agricultural shippers or products such as cotton.
   Indeed, Drennan said that Union Compress, a company that ships about 300,000 bales of cotton annually, said an inland port might help it boost shipments to as much as 1 million bales.
   Drennan said there are 22 distribution centers within a 200-mile radius that would be potential users of the inland port, including distribution centers run by Wal-Mart and Family Dollar, and the Miller brewery in Albany, Ga.