The port of Savannah
- Fourth busiest container port in the U.S.
- Second busiest (after New York/New Jersey) on the East Coast.
- A record 3.1 million containers imported and exported last year.
- A 1,200-acre terminal at Garden City.
- Top exports: Wood pulp, paper and paperboard, poultry (fresh and frozen).
- Top imports: Furniture, auto parts, general cargo.
- Estimated $39 billion economic impact on Georgia’s economy.
- About 100,000 jobs across Metro Atlanta are port-related.
Sources: Georgia Ports Authority, University of Georgia.
The Savannah Harbor Expansion Project
- Cost: $706 million.
- Georgia already raised $266 million. Washington supposed to come up with the rest.
- About half of the $706 million to be spent mitigating environmental harm.
- Deepen the river from 42 to 47 feet.
- The project is 41 miles long, from the Garden City Terminal into the Atlantic Ocean.
- Dredging will take 62 months.
- 24 million cubic yards of river mud will be dredged, enough to fill seven Georgia Domes.
- Each dollar spent is projected to return $5.50 in benefits, or $174 million annually.
- 6,100 temporary jobs will be created.
Source: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Any day now the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the state of Georgia will finally agree to deepen the Savannah River and Harbor by five feet. The so-called Project Partnership Agreement (PPA) describes in detail which agency is responsible for what part of the project and who pays for it. So far, $266 million of the entire $706 million project has been raised by Georgia taxpayers. It’s up to Congress to pony up the rest.
Additional information on Georgia’s most critical development project in decades – more stories, an interactive map, photo galleries and videotaped interviews — can be found at myajc.com
A boat ride up the Savannah River is the best way to grasp the sheer size of the harbor deepening project, one of Georgia’s most critical economic-development plans ever.
The Survey Boat Downs, operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is dwarfed by the massive container ships docked at the port, which carry upwards of 8,000 steel shipping containers. Cranes rising 12 stories high pluck the containers from the ships and place them on trucks that ferry them to million-square foot warehouses or mile-long trains.
Across the river, the seductive Savannah National Wildlife Refuge covers 29,000 acres of freshwater marsh, bird sanctuary, tidal rivers and bottomland hardwoods filled with cypress, gum, hackberry and red maple.
Even the alligator, dipping below the mid-river surface as the Downs passes, looks frighteningly large.
But the price tag to deepen the harbor and river – $706 million – might be the project’s most outsized feature. Georgia taxpayers have already ponied up $266 million. Congress, supposedly, will cover the rest.
A deeper river is needed, state and federal officials say, because ever-larger container ships from Asia, many traversing the under-expansion Panama Canal, demand deeper water. The corps says that every $1 spent deepening the river will return $5.50 in economic benefits, or $174 million a year once the fully laden big ships start rolling up the river.
“Georgia produces poultry in the northern part of the state, pine trees in the southern part of the state, kaolin clay in Central Georgia and peanuts all over, and the best way to sell those products overseas is with deeper water here in Savannah,” Curtis Foltz, who runs the Georgia Ports Authority, said recently while standing dockside amid a dizzying array of trucks, cranes and ships. “It’s a big macro-economic development tool.”
But the economic benefits accrue to the steamship lines, retailers and manufacturers – not taxpayers. The corps expects no additional cargo nor new, permanent jobs due to the deepening. And the environmental costs are huge: About half of the $706 million will go toward mitigating potential harm to flora and fauna.
The deepening project is an engineer’s dream. Or nightmare. The 41-mile long dig passes alongside biologically diverse estuaries, paper mills, chemical factories, a liquefied natural gas tank farm, two historic forts, downtown Savannah and the Garden City Terminal. It passes over a sunken Civil War ironclad and under the towering Talmadge Bridge.
The project impacts Augusta, 200 miles upriver, and South Carolina, across the river, where millions of tons of dredged muck will be deposited.
Deepening will allow salt water to push farther upstream, harming endangered sturgeon and, potentially, drinking water. All the while the river must remain open and passable for ships destined for the port. And there’s always the chance that environmentalists or S.C. politicians might, again, try to stop the dig.
“The harbor deepening is a massive project and one of the biggest concerns is not just how it will affect business in the harbor, but along the entire Savannah River,” said Tonya Bonitatibus, the Savannah Riverkeeper. “There are a lot of things that have been modeled, but not actually proven. A lot of tests have to be done to ensure things work the way they say they will.”
Today, though, the focus is on moving forward after nearly two decades of study and delay.
“It’s exciting to now put all studies and review in the rearview mirror and start awarding contracts, getting to work and seeing mud move,” Foltz said.
Fish bypass
- Where: Below Augusta at the New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam
- What: A passageway around the dam to allow endangered sturgeon to reach upriver breeding grounds
- Cost: $35 million
- Start construction: April 2016
- Duration: 700 days
- Deepening the Savannah River will allow more salt water to travel farther upstream. A surge of salt water will harm the river’s delicate fresh water-salt water balance and the fishes’ ability to spawn.
A passageway will be built to allow the sturgeon and other fish to bypass the lock and dam, which sit 180 miles upstream of Savannah. A boulder-filled ramp, rising gradually and extending hundreds of feet downstream, will be built on the South Carolina side of the river allowing the fish to swim upstream and reach the Augusta Shoals.
1 – Oxygen Injectors
- Where: Plant McIntosh and Hutchinson Island
- What: So-called Speece cones that pump “super oxygenated water” into the river
- Cost: $75 million
- Start project: January 2015
- Duration: 450 days
This the most controversial piece of the corps’ mitigation efforts. Two sites — one upriver of the port on a swampy bend currently owned by Georgia Power, the other a bit downstream of the port on Hutchinson Island – will house futuristic oxygen “bubblers.”
A deeper river, particularly in the hot summer months, makes it harder for oxygen to reach the depths where many fish hang out. Speece cones, developed by engineer Dick Speece, suck water from the river, add pure oxygen and pump the mixture back into the river 30 feet below the surface.
The corps will operate a dozen stainless steel cones – eight upriver, four on Hutchinson – each standing about 20 feet tall. The technology has never been used on such a massive scale. Environmentalists question whether the oxygen machines will work. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service once reported “a high degree of uncertainty as to how effective oxygen injection would be.”
If the cones fail, the entire deepening project could be scuttled.
“It’ll work,” promised Jason O’Kane, the project manager, one recent morning along the banks of the rain-swollen Savannah River. “A lot of research has gone into it. The chances for success are very good.”
2 – Freshwater wetlands
- Where: Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, etc.
- What: The purchase of 2,200 acres of freshwater marsh to add to the refuge and other actions to mitigate salt water intrusion
- Cost: $50 million (estimate)
- Start project: October 2014
- Duration: Through 2020
The salt water surge will harm biologically diverse freshwater marshes. The beautiful, 30,000-acre Savannah National Wildlife Refuge – prime habitat for migratory birds, alligators and endangered fish — is home for much of the affected marshland.
The corps proposes a slew of engineering and real estate maneuvers to mitigate the salt water intrusion. It will buy 2,200 acres of freshwater marsh to replace 223 acres of wetlands that the deepening will turn brackish. The land will be added to the refuge.
Tidal creeks in the upper harbor will be rerouted to add more fresh water into the Back River, which runs alongside the Savannah River. Salinity levels will drop in 740 acres of salt marsh and, eventually, lead to more diverse plant communities that can nurture wildlife. River cuts, gouged years ago to speed travel between the Savannah and Back rivers, will be closed. And a tidal gate on the Back River will be demolished.
3 – City of Savannah freshwater intake/pond
- Where: City’s water intake along Abercorn Creek
- What: Construction of a 33-acre freshwater reservoir nearby to serve as temporary supply of fresh water
- Cost: $30 million
- Start construction: August 2015
- Duration: One year
Abercorn Creek in Effingham County, from which the city of Savannah pulls its drinking water, is expected to receive higher concentrations of saline and chloride as the salt water surges upstream. Chloride is generally safe to drink (unless concentrations skyrocket), but it can make the water unpalatable.
A 77 million-gallon reservoir will be built to provide a temporary supply of drinking water when the river is running low and high tides push salt water far upstream. On those “rare occasions,” according to the corps, the impounded water will be used primarily for industrial customers, allowing previously treated water to flow to households.
4 – Inner harbor/Kings Island deepening
- Where: The harbor alongside the Garden City Terminal and 32 miles downstream
- What: Widen the ship-turning basin and bends in the river and dredge five feet of mud
- Cost: $180 million
- Start construction: March 2017
- Duration: 810 days
About 90 percent of the container ships that call on the port are too big – with drafts too deep, in particular – to run the river unrestricted. They must either wait for high tide or carry fewer containers. Dredgers will deepen the Kings Island Turning Basin, alongside the terminal where the big ships turn around. About 14 acres of marsh will be lost to the widening. They’ll also widen, by 100 feet, three bends in the river to make it easier for ships passing at the same time.
5 – Striped bass stocking
- Where: Above U.S. 17 in the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge
- What: Pay the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to restock striped bass
- Cost: $3.6 million
- Start project: October 2014
- Duration: Five years
The deepening is projected to reduce the river’s striped bass population by 10 percent as salt water creeps upstream harming breeding grounds. DNR will restock the river with 40,000 bass each year.
6 – Boat Ramp
- Where: Back River on Hutchinson Island
- What: Restore boater access to the Back River
- Cost: awaiting estimate from corps
- Start construction: awaiting
- Duration: awaiting
The Back River, which runs parallel to the Savannah River and is separated by Hutchinson Island, is a popular boating and fishing corridor. Access to the river, though, will be curtailed by the deepening. Boaters would have to put in at another ramp seven miles upriver. The corps will demolish an old tidal gate on the South Carolina side of the island and build a two-lane concrete ramp with a floating dock.
7 – CSS Georgia
- Where: Near Fort Jackson
- What: Dig up and preserve what remains of the Civil War ironclad
- Cost: $15 million
- Start project: October 2015
- Duration: 730 days
Georgia’s Civil War maritime treasure lies a-moldering three miles below River Street. Built in 1862 and scuttled two years later as Union troops advanced on Savannah, the iron-covered ship was further damaged by a dredge in 1969. An earlier salvage operation recovered two cannons, cannonballs and other artifacts.
U.S. Navy divers brought to the surface a 5,000-pound section of the ship’s casement last November. The ship’s remains, including iron-sided casements, additional cannons, bits of the engine and the propeller, will be salvaged early next year. It could take five years to stabilize, via electrolysis, the iron casements and fully preserve the ship. The Navy, which owns the ship classified as a captured enemy vessel, will then decide if and where the Georgia’s remains will be displayed.
8 – Extend entrance channel
- Where: Off Fort Pulaski and 7.1 miles into the Atlantic Ocean
- What: A 7.1 mile “runway” to allow ships easier access to the river
- Cost: $100 million
- Start project: January 2015
- Duration: 1,201 days
The easiest section to dredge, without widespread environmental damage, the extension will allow big ships a longer, more economical glide path to the port. The depth too will be deeper – 49 feet – two feet more than the inner harbor. The dredged mud and rock will be placed on a barge and taken to a disposal site well offshore. The dredge spoils from the remainder of the channel will be deposited via pipe onto the South Carolina side of the river.
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