Marchand: Savannah must secure additional capacity

Marchand: Savannah must secure additional capacity The Georgia Port Authority is not about to retreat from its ambitious development plan despite the current economic challenges, Executive Director Doug. J. Marchand said Thursday.
   'This is not a time to retreat from the planning and construction that has driven so much of our prosperity,' he told more than 800 Savannah port and business community representatives at a luncheon. 'In fact, this is precisely the time to secure additional capacity and, in so doing, we will ensure additional economic opportunity and sustainable growth for generations to come.'
   In his annual 'state of the ports' address Thursday, Marchand said the port authority's fiscal year ending June 30, 'was a year of two halves.' The port of Savannah's container throughput grew 14.9 percent for the year to 2.6 million TEUs. But while the port started the year with monthly increases of 27 percent, 30.1 percent and 29.4 percent, the last two months of its fiscal year posted declines of 3.1 percent and 2.6 percent.
   Nonetheless, the port authority's total tonnage for all terminal facilities — including Bainbridge, Brunswick and Columbus along with Savannah — surpassed 25 million tons, a 17.5-percent increase.
   During it's most recent fiscal year, GPA completed the first phase of reconstruction at Container Berth 2, and added four new super post-Panamax cranes with four more to be delivered in early 2009. The port authority also began engineering and design of the new container interchange Gate Eight, as work neared completion on the new Chatham Yard intermodal container transfer facility. Further expansion of the James D. Mason ICTF was also completed.
   Marchand called on attendees to actively support the harbor deepening project that would deepen the Savannah River from its current 42 feet to as much as 48 feet.
   'The single most important factor to ensure our future success remains the completion of the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project,' he said. 'Without a deepening of the channel to Garden City Terminal, the larger ships calling on the U.S. East Coast ports will not be able to trade here.'
   The deepening project has been in the works for 12 years and the port authority's goal is to complete the project by 2013, one year before the scheduled opening of the expanded Panama Canal.